


The Brainiac And The Dreamer

by Write_To_You



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Also Some Not Episode Related, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, But I'm Slow At Getting To Them LOL, Chapters Are Unrelated, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Cuddling & Snuggling, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode Related, F/M, Fluff, Hugs, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, It'll Be Stated Within The Chapter, Oneshot Series, Sickfic, Summaries and Spoilers Vary from Chapter to Chapter, Superheroes, accepting prompts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:21:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 27
Words: 65,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24491206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Write_To_You/pseuds/Write_To_You
Summary: A collection of drabbles surrounding Brainy and Nia and their amazing relationship.(Cross posted on fanfiction.net, and currently working on moving all the chapters over here. So there'll be some mentions of episodes and plots from season 4 at the very beginning)
Relationships: Querl Dox/Nia Nal
Comments: 12
Kudos: 42





	1. Chocos

**Author's Note:**

> Summary: Post 4x15, Nia brings Brainy his Chocos and they discuss what happened in the hospital.  
> Spoilers: 4x15. Which you may have guessed considering the summery said “post 4x15”.

Nia wasn’t exactly sure if she was allowed to go see Brainy. She fully realized that, after they had kissed, he had basically rejected her. But he had done so in a way that made Nia feel.... not heartbroken. It was obvious that Brainy still wanted their relationship. It seemed he was just a little too scared to try.

What had he said? That relationships based on intense experiences never lasted? Well, it wasn’t as if their _only_ interactions had been while training to be superheroes or dealing with the end of the world. Nia could remember plenty of times things had been calmer, like when she had showed up at the DEO when she couldn’t sleep (read: couldn’t _let_ herself sleep) to see if she could help out and had found Brainy working almost all alone at his desk. She had sat with him and they had talked and eventually both of them had passed out in their respective chairs until they were awoken the next morning.

Or- or what about that time, after her mom had died, when Brainy had knocked on her door at 5 in the morning? She had gotten up, glad her roommate was out of town as the knocking persisted, over and over and _over_ again until she was practically running for the door. She had opened it, beyond irritable, only to find Brainy holding a box of warm donuts and not seeming to at all realize that 5 am was a bit early for social calls.

The warm donuts had aided her forgiveness of him pretty well, as had the bedhead he’d seemingly forgotten to tame before coming to her apartment.

Point being, they had had, if not plenty, at least a good amount of moments that weren’t based on intense experiences. So Brainy’s excuse for not having their relationship was fundamentally just.. not working.

She was fully prepared to tell him that as she walked towards his apartment. She also had something to give him, but she figured that could be used to gain access, or as a peace offering or something.

She had never actually been to Brainy’s apartment before. He had been to her’s a couple times, like during the 5 am visit and when her roommate threw her Valentine’s Day bash, but she had never been invited to his place or had had a reason to go. The building itself was small and looked rundown. She wondered how well the DEO actually paid Brainy, or if he even noticed that his living space was less-than-desirable. 

She had contacted Kara, awkwardly, to find out what room number Brainy was. Kara had immediately started asking questions but Nia had made some sort of excuse and hung up as soon as possible. She was sure that she was being fairly obvious about this whole _thing_ she and Brainy had, but she still felt the need to keep it at least a little secret. 

Nia had reached Brainy’s door. She hesitated, then took a deep breath, then knocked as firmly as she could. Her hands were shaking, and she tried not to crush Brainy’s gift or melt it with her sweaty palms.

Nia heard footsteps on the other side of the door. She held her breath as the viewfinder darkened. She could imagine Brainy on the other side, peering through, eyebrows crunching in consideration of why Nia Nal was standing outside his door.

Then she heard the latch unbolt and the door slowly swung open.

“Nia Nal,” Brainy greeted, hands clasped, as always, primly behind his back. “It is... a surprise to see you here.”

“An... okay surprise?” Nia asked, suddenly wondering if Brainy even wanted to see her. He had made his position pretty clear back at the hospital. Was she being stupid in thinking that he actually _did_ want a relationship with her? Had he been letting her down easy and she was just going to break her own heart but showing up here tonight?

Brainy seemed not to understand her question. “It is a surprise,” he repeated. “I believe that you would say that it is a... pleasant surprise?”

Nia was relieved. “Good, good,” she said, before extending what was in her hand. “Uh, I brought you a gift.”

Brainy squinted down at it. “A gift?” he repeated. “It is not my birthday nor is it Christmas.” He paused. “We’re you... expecting a gift in return?”

“Oh, no, no,” Nia told him hurriedly. “Sometimes people just... give each other gifts. To be nice. Or because they think the other person could use a present. Like- like when you brought me donuts after my mom died.”

“I see.” Brainy nodded, and delicately picked up the object resting in Nia’s upturned palm. “Oh. It’s a Choco!”

She smiled brightly. “You seemed kinda upset not to be able to get one at the hospital, so I figured I’d pick one up for you.”

Brainy looked happily down at the candy bar. “Thank you very much Nia Nal,” he said. “I think I rather like your tradition of giving gifts for no reason.”

“Well...” Nia said slowly. “There kind of... _is_ a reason, actually. I suppose you could say that it’s kind of like a peace offering?”

Brainy’s eyebrows scrunched. “I do not understand,” he told her. “I didn’t not realize that we were at war with each other.”

“No, no, not war, exactly.” Nia wasn’t exactly sure where to go with this. Maybe peace offering had been the wrong term. “It’s just that, well, we didn’t end in the best of ways at the hospital. I kissed you, and you said that you couldn’t have our relationship because-”

“Relationships based off of intense experiences never last,” Brainy finished. “Yes. I thought I made my position rather clear. I hope I did not hurt you too badly.”

“You didn’t,” Nia said. “But- but only because I feel like you don’t actually not want this relationship.”

He made a very Brainy-like contemplative face. “ _That_ is a double negative.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Basically, I feel like you actually _do_ want to be in a relationship with me,” Nia explained awkwardly. This was more challenging than she had expected it to be. “Even though you said you didn’t.”

“Unlike most humans, when I say things, I usually mean them,” Brainy told her.

“Yeah but.... I think you were just scared. Maybe.”

“Scared?”

Nia winced, worried that she had offended him. “I’m not, like, saying you’re a coward or anything. I just more meant that... you know, relationships can be scary. Especially new ones. Especially because of the lives we lead. But we don’t _just_ have a relationship based on intense experiences. It’s not fair to- to not let yourself date me or whatever just because you think that.”

“I am... a little confused,” Brainy admitted slowly. “You are saying that.... you believe that I said that we shouldn’t have a relationship not because I _actually_ don’t want one, but that I was scared to have one?”

“Uh... yes?”

“Well then.” Brainy swallowed, stepping back and allowing her to move further into his apartment. “You would be right.”

Nia felt a shock of excitement burst in her stomach. She walked into Brainy’s apartment and he shut the door. It was almost completely dark in his front entry hall until he felt along the wall and flicked on the light. 

His place wasn’t anything special. The ceiling and the walls were fairly molded and the paint was peeling, and his furniture looked old and secondhand. Nia didn’t suspect that Brainy spent much time here. There weren’t any dirty dishes in the sink, the laundry basket was empty, and there was only one framed photograph in his window.

Oh, jeez.

It was of her.

Well okay, it was of _them_ , which made it significantly less creepy than if he had just printed a picture of her off her Instagram or something.

She tried not to stare at it too long, not wanting to make him uncomfortable. Brainy laced his fingers behind his back, waiting for a second while she looked around before speaking. “I apologize about the state of my home,” he said, sounding a little embarrassed. “I must admit to not spending much time here.”

So he did notice how decrepit it was. Nia felt sad for him. “It’s fine,” she told him quickly. “It looks... cozy.”

He nodded once. “It serves its purpose.”

“So, um...” Nia was trying to steer the subject back to them, to their relationship, and the bomb he had dropped on her in the middle of his entryway. “So I was right? To come here? And to.... to get it out of you that you actually want a relationship with me?”

Brainy avoided the question a little. “I must admit that I’m... not very good at this,” he said with a stiff shrug. “I have never had a- a _girlfriend_ before. I’ve never seen the necessity of it before you.”

If that wasn’t adorable Nia didn’t know what was. She laughed a little. “We can go as slow as you want,” she assured him, starting to feel incredibly hopeful. “If you _do_ want a relationship with me, that is.”

“Are you....” Brainy stopped and frowned. “Are you asking me.. to ask you... on a _date_?”

He wasn’t exactly saying the words with any sort of disgust, but they were definitely unfamiliar in his mouth. Nia softened. “It’s the 21st century,” she shrugged. “Guys don’t have to do all the work. Brainy, do you want to go on a date with me?”

Brainy’s eyes went wide. “Nia Nal,” he said, reaching out and quickly snatching up her hand like if he went too slowly he would lose his nerve. “I would like nothing more.”


	2. My Hero

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Brainy rescues Nia from a hostage situation.   
> Spoilers: None

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, a new chapter! Who knows; maybe I'll be able to post these all summer so I'll be caught up and ready to post NEW chapters inspired by the new season when Supergirl comes back in Spring 2021. We'll see. 
> 
> Dang, all of this story-posting-planning-chapter-releasing stuff is really stressing me out XD

It wasn’t a total surprise that the gunmen chose to come to the top floor of CatCo and take everyone hostage. James was in a seat of power. He was a good bargaining tool. And, while the gunmen couldn’t possibly know that they were actually trapping two superheroes on the top floor, they did know they were taking Guardian hostage. 

The aforementioned superheroes couldn’t do much to help. James and Nia, who had recently become the superhero Dreamer, were both shoved to the side of the room like every other non-hero person. They were asked to take off their shoes and hand over their cellphones, and then were patted down for any extra weapons or methods of communication. The gunmen were even smart enough to confiscate James’ watch before he could contact Supergirl. Nia had to admit it. They had done their research.

That didn’t change her opinion on any sort of non-meta or special-tech-carrying bad guys in National City. With Supergirl around, and the rest of the Superfriends (when they weren’t tied up along with everyone else), how did normal, human criminals think they were going to get away with anything? They may of had some luck if Kara had been inside CatCo (that would have actually worked out rather well in their favor), but she was out doing _something_ , running a story or getting coffee or who knew what.

Nia, sitting with her back against the wall, tried to get a look around without attracting too much attention. There were at least twenty gunmen in the room: one stationed by each window, which were now locked, two guarding the stairway, and numerous others keeping watch over the hostages. The elevators had been put out of commission after the lead gunman had used them to make his way up to the top floor. He had fired his gun up in the air to get everyone’s attention, making people scatter and shriek with fear. There was still probably a hole in the ceiling from the bullet.

Nia’s thoughts abruptly trailed off as her eyes landed on one of the gunmen. He moved his gun, and the sunlight hit it in just the right way. Something inside it glowed green.

Nia let out a gasp, and the man looked over and glared at her. She swallowed and sucked in her lips, heart thudding rapidly.

There was no doubt in her mind that the gun held kryptonite. 

Everything made sense now! The gunmen knew that Supergirl would show up to fight them. Nia was surprised they hadn’t let James call her, just to get her there faster. When Supergirl _did_ show up, the gunman would shoot her with kryptonite. It was a good plan.

Nia bit her lip, mind racing. She had to do _something_. Something to warn Supergirl, or-

Brainy!

Nia felt a grin spread over her face. There was, maybe, _just maybe_ , something she could try. It was a new technique that she and Brainy had been working on in their spare time; a different way to use her powers. She could tap into other people’s subconscious using her dream powers in the same way that the dream powers tapped into hers. 

For most people, unless they were listening specially for Nia’s dream-voice in their head, they ignored her or didn’t hear her. But Brainy, who’s AI Plate made him the smartest of all of them and also the most able to multitask, she could usually get through to.

Nia tilted her head back against the wall and shut her eyes. She had to focus _only_ on what she was doing for this to work, and the process sometimes sent her into a semi-trance like state. She just had to hope that if anything happened, James would be able to protect the civilians in the room.

The first step was to access her powers. Nia’s hands, conveniently, were already tied behind her back and out of sight. She hoped the glow wouldn’t attract any attention, but she couldn’t help it very much. Soon, her hands began to tingle with her blue Dream Energy. She could feel the soft wisps of power slithering against her skin, sending goosebumps up her arms.

Next step. She pictured Brainy in her mind (shoulder length, dark, wavy hair, green eyes that looked brown in some lights, nose with a small bump in the center, eyebrows that liked to wrinkle downward when he was confused) and then she pictured his Dream Aura. The biggest problem with Nia’s new ability was that she had trouble seeing people’s Dream Auras without knowing them. If she needed to get a message to someone she didn’t know, she wasn’t sure if she could.

That wasn’t a problem for right now, though. Nia squeezed her eyes tight and imaged Brainy’s Dream Aura glowing a pale blue around him, like the AI globes stuck into his forehead when his image inducer wasn’t activated. 

In seconds, she felt like she was flying through a tunnel. Her vision and her mind were surrounded with swirling blue tendrils. _Brainy?_ she thought-spoke into the emptiness. _Are you there?_

Time in a Dream Scape was hard to count. Nia could have been waiting for ten minutes, or it could have been only a few seconds; she had no way of knowing. But she got her response.

 _Nia Nal?_ Brainy’s voice was clear in her head. If she had had a physical form in the Dream Scape, she would have smiled. _Is that you?_

 _Yeah Brainy, it’s me_ , Nia replied. _I’ve connected to your Dream Aura._

 _Remarkable!_ Brainy proclaimed. _Good work._

_Thanks. Look- we don’t have much time. I’m stuck in CatCo right now with the rest of the employees on the top floor. We’re being held hostage._

Brainy cut her off, and she could feel his Dream Aura darken from proud to frantic. _What?! Are you alright?_

_Yeah, we’re all fine, they haven’t shot us yet_ , Nia assured him. _But Brainy, you need to tell Supergirl-_

_I’ll inform her immediately of your situation-_

_No!_ Nia interrupted quickly. _No, you need to tell her not to come._

There was a silence. Brainy’s Aura shifted to confused. _Not to come? But Nia, you need to be rescued._

 _Supergirl can’t come,_ Nia reiterated. _At least one of these guns holds Kryptonite._

Confusion turned to shock. _Kryptonite? Hold on, Nia, I will tell her right away and make sure she does not come._

 _Wait- Brainy._ Nia could feel her concentration starting to slip. Tapping into someone else’s Dream Aura, even Brainy’s, which was the easiest, was challenging. She was either getting tired, or there was something going on around her that required her attention. _I can’t keep this connection any longer. We’re going to need some rescuing, but Supergirl can’t come. You got all that?_

 _Indeed_ , Brainy assured her. _Be safe, Nia Nal. I will see you so-_

The connection abruptly let go and Nia opened her eyes with a gasp. Her cheek was stinging, and she found herself behind held in the air by her neck, the beady eyes of one of the gunman staring at her from two inches away.

Nia immediately began to choke, woozy from being in her Dream Scape for so long. She struggled feebly as she dangled in the air, legs kicking and hands scrabbling to free themselves from the zip-tie holding them behind her back.

“You wanna answer the question, girlie?” the gunman asked, breathing heavily into her face. 

Nia coughed. Her head swam. What question? What question could he have possibly asked?

“Stop!” James suddenly yelled from the side of the room. He lurched to his feet, hands still tied behind his back. “She was unconscious. She has narcolepsy.”

“Narco- what?” the gunman asked, wrinkling his nose.

“It means she falls asleep at random intervals,” James explained hurriedly. His eyes were locked on Nia, who had a strange fuzziness inside of her ears. She gasped again, trying to find more breath. There wasn’t much to find. “She couldn’t have possibly heard your question about _where Supergirl was_ because she’d fallen asleep.”

Hazily, Nia realized James was giving her a cue. “She’s-” she choked, still trying to free herself from her bonds. “She’s- Supergirl- I’m sure she’s- coming- to save us-”

It wasn’t true, but she supposed it was probably the answer the gunman wanted. He dropped her to the ground and her legs, numb, failed her. She crumbled like a piece of tissue paper, landing on her shoulder and choking for breath. Someone, one of her work-mates, reached out and pulled her back into the line up.

“Mr. Olsen....” the gunman said slowly. “You spoke when we didn’t want you to speak. We told you what would happen if you did that.”

James‘ jaw tightened and he slowly sank back into a seated position. His hands were tied- literally. There wasn’t much he could do as the gunman raised his weapon and cocked it.

There was a sudden shattering of glass. Nia looked up, still coughing, to see none other than Brainy bursting through a window, flying at top speed with the use of his Legion ring.

“I believe,” he said, once he had landed. “That you are looking for Supergirl?”

“Yeah,” the gunman spat. “And she’s sure not _you_.”

Brainy made a face. “I would hope _not_ ,” he said, lacing his hands behind his back and straightening his spine. “Now, would you rather release your hostages, or get your butts... kicked?”

Nia snorted, but she immediately stopped laughing when twenty or so guns were raised and pointed directly at Brainy. She watched him take a deep breath, eyes fluttering for a moment before everyone fired. 

She wasn’t sure if she had ever seen him move so quickly or fluidly before. Bullets rained down on him as he ducked, dodged, and weaved in a series of unpredictable movements, all in the air, all with his hands still primly laced behind his back. 

In a matter of moments, the guns stopped firing. All the of windows were shattered, and the hostages were curled on the floor, hands above their heads and curled in on themselves in terror. Nia peeped up at Brainy. “That was easily the hottest thing I’ve ever seen,” she muttered, eyes wide.

Brainy floated towards the ground, wary of the ceasefire. The lead gunman locked eyes with him and walked slowly over to the line of hostages. He reached Nia, grabbed her by her bicep, and stuck a gun at her temple. Nia felt all the blood drain from her face as the cold metal grazed the skin right under her hair. 

“No- no!” Brainy held up his hands. “What’re you doing? This is between us. Put her- put her down.” His hands were shaking, Nia realized. He was really, truly scared.

The gunman rolled his eyes. “We want Supergirl,” he said, shoving the gun a little harder against Nia’s head. Her eyes fluttered shut, heart pounding. “Get her over here, or I’ll shoot her.”

“Shoot me,” James called, standing up again. “I’m the Guardian. Shoot me and leave her alone.”

The gunman spun around, annoyance scrawled on his face. “You know what?” he said to James. “I think I’m going to, just because you’re being incredibly irritating. And _then_ I’m going to shoot this girl.”

He cocked his gun, barely hesitated, then fired. James dove to the side, rolling onto his shoulder and then back to his feet. He bent his knees, ready for the next shot.

He forgot about the other twenty gunmen located around the room. They raised their weapons in unison and James froze, trapped.

Brainy looked desperately between Nia and James, his plan unraveling. “I will get Supergirl!” he cried out, raising his hands before any more shots could be fired. “I’ll bring her here.”

“Brainy!” Nia gasped. “Don’t!”

“I thought you two knew each other,” the gunman smirked. He pressed the gun to Nia’s head again. “Go on, little worker bee. Bring back your Queen.”

“I’m not even going to go into how much that didn’t make sense,” Brainy muttered as he took off into the air once again.

The gunman threw Nia back on the floor. She landed with a thump, and, sick of being tossed around, glared at the gunman. “Okay, would you cut it out?”

The gunman gave her a warning look. “I think I’d watch your mouth if I were you.”

“If you were me, you wouldn’t be doing this,” Nia snapped. 

The warning look increased and Nia bit her tongue, slouching backwards against the wall.

They waited, and soon Brainy was flying back through the window holding a small disk. “Where’s Supergirl?!” the gunman demanded, growling with anger. 

Brainy floated gently down to the ground and held out the silver plate. The gunman raised his weapon. “Don’t you dare touch that thing,” he said. “I will shoot.”

“It’s a message,” Brainy told him patiently. “From Supergirl.”

Without waiting for permission, he pressed the center button of the disk. The gunman flinched back, clearly expecting there to be some sort of explosion. Instead, the holographic of Supergirl shivered into focus.

“I’m sorry I can’t come to the crime scene right now,” the holograph said, Kara’s voice sounding a little robotic through the speakers. “At the moment, I am tied up with business on another planet. Please accept my offering of Brainy to deliver you to justice.”

Nia’s lips twitched. Kara was not on another Earth, and even if she was, this sounded _way_ to much like a phone answering machine message to have been made in any seriousness. The gunmen seemed to think so as well, and there was a mixture between slightly amused and steadily angering faces in the group.

Brainy didn’t wait for anyone else’s reaction. As the finished message flickered in the air, nearly see-through, he pressed another button on the silver disk. A blinding flash went off, followed by thick, green smoke.

Nia tugged her shirt over her mouth and held her breath as the gunmen began to yell and fire their guns in confusion.

“Stop it, you idiots!” their leader bellowed. “You could hit me!”

The gunfire ceased, and soon there was only the sound of coughing filling the air. Nia was getting lightheaded from holding her breath when a figure crouched beside her. She tumbled back, waiting for a gun to press into a head again, but Brainy’s face appeared through the haze. She turned pink when she realized how close he was.

“Here,” he whispered, pressing a gas mask to her face. She inhaled greedily, glad to be able to breathe.

A couple seconds later, bodies began dropping. Nia heard the metallic sound of guns skittering across floors. Unfortunately, the hostages were passed out too, unable to stand the gas. Soon, only Nia and Brainy were left conscious. 

The gas began to filter. It couldn’t stay long in a room with eight broken windows, and Nia could soon see the aftermath of Brainy coming to save the day. Everyone in the room was out cold, sprawled across the floor.

“You could have brought a few more gas masks,” Nia smirked as Brainy helped her unclasp her own mask from around her head.

“So ungrateful,” Brainy huffed, smiling. He reached up and moved his fingers in a brusk, careful way along her hairline. “He didn’t shoot you, correct?”

“No, no, I’m fine,” Nia assured him. “Thank you for coming.”

Brainy dipped his chin into a nod. “I must admit to... wanting to save you, at least once, in my time as hero.”

The sentiment was a little anti-feminist, but Nia thought it was sweet. “You’re my hero,” she told Brainy, then looked a little closer as he coughed and shuffled his feet. “Brainy.... are you _blushing_?”

“I-” Brainy looked taken aback and quickly raised a hand to touch his cheek. “It appears that I am. How.... odd.”

Nia snickered, then looked around. “Hey, we should probably disarm these guys and tie them up before they wake up,” she said. 

“Yes, of course,” Brainy agreed, hurrying around and breaking her zip ties so she’d have use of her hands. As Nia stretched out her arms and shoulders and inspected her swollen, red wrists, Brainy picked up all the guns, put them in a corner, and tied up the bad guys.

“Now, how about I take you home?” Brainy suggested. 

Nia hadn‘t realized how tired she was until he said that. “That would be lovely,” she said, and followed Brainy over to the window. He glanced over at her, took a quick side step closer, and then hastily put his arm around her waist. Nia raised her eyebrows and gave him a quizzical smile. “Hold on, Nia Nal,” Brainy instructed. “It’s time to go for a ride.”

Then, as the people still lying on the floor began to groan and come-to, Brainy and Nia lifted through the window and out into the air. 

He landed on the balcony of her apartment. “This is your home, correct?” he asked, taking a respectful step back from her and lacing his fingers behind his back.

Nia’s legs felt jello-y from the flight, but she nodded. “Uh... I don’t mean to be picky, but... if my roommate is home, she’s going to be _very_ suspicious when I walk into the room from the balcony after not being here all day.”

“Hmmm, yes,” Brainy agreed, contemplating that. “I’ll take you down to the front, then.”

When they had re-landed in an unpeopled area, Brainy once again stepped away from Nia. She reached out and grabbed his arm before he could walk away. “Hey, Brainy? Thank you, again, for saving me. I appreciate it.”

He bowed his head. “It was no trouble at all, Nia. In fact, I think I could even say that it was.... my pleasure.”

Nia smiled and rubbed his arm once before letting it drop. “I’m glad to hear that.”


	3. Picnic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Brainy takes Nia on a picnic date
> 
> Spoilers: some minor spoilers for (or really just mentions to?) Nia’s speech in 4x19, and a couple of interactions of their’s from before that episode.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this chapter after I finished season 4 of Supergirl allll the way last year, but I gotta say... it might just be in my top ten favorites of all the chapters I've written for this story so far. So enjoy :)

Nia was working on a new article about an orphanage in National City that accepted both alien and human children when someone behind her cleared their throat.

She turned around and her eyes lit up. “Brainy! What’re you doing here?”

“I am here... because I have a proposal to make,” Brainy replied slowly, hands tight behind his back.

Nia’s eyebrows jumped. “Excuse me?”

“A... proposal,” Brainy repeated. “Uh, an idea? A.. proposition?”

“Oh.” Nia let out a relieved breath. “Right. Of course. What is your.... proposal?”

“I propose a picnic,” Brainy told her. “You, uh... you said that you liked Thursdays and April and prefer salty over sweet but like s’mores so I waited until a Thursday in April and packed a picnic basket with s’mores from the grocery store and some sandwiches and chips.”

It was quite possibly the sweetest gesture Nia had ever been made and her eyes went wide in surprise. “You... remembered all of that? From my- uh, _Dreamer’s_ \- interview?”

“I... may or may not have put it away in your file inside of my head,” Brainy admitted sheepishly. “For future reference.”

Nia grinned. “You have a file on me, huh?”

Brainy glanced to either side of him, as if looking for a place to hide. “I can neither confirm nor deny that,” he mumbled finally, embarrassed.”

“It’s okay,” Nia laughed. “If I had your brain, you’d have an entire filing cabinet all to yourself.”

She turned back to her article to hide her smile as Brainy began to stutter in confusion at what exactly that meant. Finally he scooted around her desk so he could see her face again. “So... do you accept?”

“Hm?”

“My proposal. For a picnic.”

Nia smiled. “I would love to,” she told him, and checked her watch. “I take my lunch break in fifteen minutes; can you wait that long?”

“Of course.” Brainy bobbed his head in almost a little half-bow. “I will... leave you to your article.”

Nia nodded back at him and went back to her writing. She didn’t stop smiling for the next 15 minutes.

**W / T \ Y**

With some direction from Kara (with whom Brainy had left a message for Nia), Nia found Brainy at his car. There was a legitimate straw picnic basket at his feet, with a thin red-and-white checkered blanket poking out at the top. Nia’s eyes lit up. “This is adorable,” she said once she was within earshot. “Where are we going to go for the picnic?”

Brainy looked around. “I suppose that... a parking lot isn’t the best location,” he hummed thoughtfully. “I think that there is a small park a couple of blocks from here... Shall we... adjourn?”

Nia nodded and swung her purse farther up on her shoulder. Brainy picked up the basket and offered his arm to her in a gallant fashion. Smiling, Nia took it.

They started to walk, and had made it a couple yards away from Brainy’s car before Nia spoke. “Uh, Brainy?” she asked hesitantly. “I know that you made your position... kind of clear at the hospital-”

“I believe I made it _very_ clear.”

“Yes, but I don’t really believe that you believe that your position is the right one to have,” Nia countered.

Brainy frowned a moment. “...Go on.”

“Right,” Nia said. “Uh... I just wanted to ask you if this is a date. Because it kind of seems like it is.”

“Oh.” Brainy pursed his lips and blinked a few times, rapidly. “I now see where my actions may have been... confusing. Possibly even contradictory. I... apologize for any inner turmoil this may have caused you.”

Nia hadn’t been having all that much ‘inner turmoil’, but she thought she might hurt Brainy’s feelings if she said that. She bumped her elbow gently against his ribs. “You’re avoiding the question.”

“I am- _not_ ,” Brainy stuttered, blushing. “I, well.... yes. I suppose this is a date.”

Nia smiled. “Good,” she said, voice chipper. “I’m glad to hear that.”

They walked together in silence. After a couple more yards, Nia got the courage to move her hand from the crook of Brainy’s elbow to his hand. He glanced down and slowly intertwined their fingers together.

“So you’re a waffle hand holder, huh?” Nia asked, watching him with a smile.

He squinted at her in clear uncertainty. “I... do not understand what you mean.”

“Waffle and pancake,” Nia explained. “It’s two different ways to hold hands. Waffle is when you weave your fingers, like what we’re doing, and pancake is like this.” She demonstrated, laying their palms flat together with their fingers clumped instead of intertwined.

“Huh.” Brainy looked intrigued. “I believe that I prefer waffle to pancake. And... that I will never be able to look at those particular breakfast foods again in the same way.”

Nia laughed, switching their hands back to waffle position. “I like waffle better, too,” she told him. “Just not to eat.”

“What is your... favorite breakfast food?” Brainy asked, head tilted to the side. “Also please tell me if I am not doing dating small talk correctly because I have no previous references to check whether I am any good at it or not.”

Nia stopped walking. They were on a sidewalk, headed towards downtown National City where, as Brainy correctly remembered, there was a small park with a few benches and some grass and trees. Brainy looked around. “Why have we stopped? You.... you don’t have to tell me your breakfast preference if you don’t wish.”

“Brainy...” Nia said slowly, giving him a searching look. “Is this... your first date?”

Brainy looked thoughtful. “If we are not counting our dinner adventure as a date, which I think that we should not -though you did look incredibly lovely- considering I walked out on you and it wasn’t my previous intention... yes, I believe that this _is_ my first date.”

Nia whistled softly and began walking again. “Wow,” she said. “That’s... that’s pretty big for you then, huh?”

“I don’t believe that it matters whether or not I have dated in the past,” Brainy replied, sounding a little defensive. “I am perfectly experienced in the dating department.”

“How, exactly...?”

“Movies!” Brainy proclaimed. “And, uh... I must admit to reading the occasional... fanfiction.”

Nia giggled. “Brainy... you read fanfiction?”

“I do indeed. From time to time.” He looked embarrassed. “My point is that I have plenty of the experience that any... girlfriend would desire.”

“I’m not concerned about your experience or inexperience,” Nia assured him, smiling. “I was just a little surprised. Most people, at our age, have dated at least once before.”

“I’ve been a bit.... _busy_.”

“Hey, I haven’t done much dating myself!” Nia admitted, not wanting him to be embarrassed. “I mean, transferring from the body of a male to a female took some adjustment and, well... a lot of guys were turned off by that. _Especially_ in middle school and high school. They were all worried people were going to think they were gay or something.”

Brainy frowned. “I am... not bothered by it. I hope that you know that.”

“I do,” Nia told him, reaching over and rubbing his arm with the hand that wasn’t holding his. “Thank you.” 

They walked on, once again silent, and it wasn’t long before they reached the park. Brainy found a bench and sat down his picnic basket. “I wasn’t expecting sandwiches to be so heavy,” he said thoughtfully as he opened up the basket and tugged out the picnic blanket.

“I could have carried it for you,” Nia laughed, helping him spread out the blanket.

“What?” Brainy glanced up, looking perplexed. “That would have been rather ungentlemanly. No no, that wouldn’t have done at all.”

He reached into the basket and pulled out to homemade sandwiches with cheese and ham. “I hope that you do not have any food allergies,” he said thoughtfully. “I didn’t think to ask. But I have.... observed your eating habits in the past, and come to the conclusion that you are neither vegan nor gluten intolerant.”

Nia thought of her somewhat obsessive love of crullers with a smirk. “Yeah... I’ll basically eat anything,” she agreed. “I briefly considered going vegetarian but... bacon is just too good.”

“Hm.” Brainy frowned and paused in the action of pulling open a bag of chips. “I cannot say that I have ever had bacon before. Where I come from healthy climate awareness has reached such a necessary peak that most meat eating is looked down upon.”

Nia’s jaw dropped. “You’ve never had bacon?!” she gaped. 

“I have never done a lot of things that seem to be necessities in this time,” Brainy replied tetchily. “What people do not seem to understand is that, in my time, these things are not still... popular. I am not shamed in the same way because I have not watched or eaten or seen them.”

Nia felt guilty. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Instead of judging you, I should be promising to make sure that you can try all of these things. Maybe next date we can start watching Star Wars?”

“I would like that very much,” Brainy agreed, smiling hesitantly at her.

They began to eat their picnic. “These sandwiches are amazing, Brainy,” Nia complimented him. 

Brainy looked sheepish. “Uh... Alex told me what to buy.” He winced. “I must admit that all of this was her idea. But- but in my defense I executed it!”

“You’ve been talking with Alex about your relationship with me?”

“Uh... yes?” Brainy peeped at her face, trying to gauge her response. “I’m sorry...?”

Nia laughed, eyes crinkling. “You’re perfectly alright,” she assured him. “I didn’t know that you went to Alex for advice about us.”

“Oh yes,” Brainy agreed, nodding vigorously. “She began to help me when I was trying to find you a proper Valentine’s day present. I never ended up giving it to you in person, but-”

“Oh my gosh.” Nia cut him off, mouth falling open. “That box of 54 chocolates was _you_?”

“Indeed.” Brainy dipped his chin. “Was it too much?”

“Well, it took me about a month to finish them but I’ll always accept chocolate,” Nia grinned, shrugging. “But Brainy... you don’t need to buy me anything, okay? I’m not really the kind of girl that looks for guys with expensive sports cars who will buy me jewelry. I like... the simple things. Like this.”

Brainy tilted his head to one side and watched her through slightly squinted eyes. “So...” he spoke up finally. “I should be returning the necklace I hid inside your sandwich?”

Nia, who had just taken a bite of said sandwich, choked. “You put a necklace in my sandwich?!” she cried, pulling off the top piece of bread to find a chain coiled on top of a piece of cheese, about a centimeter away from being bit into. Nia hurriedly picked it up and pulled off a stray piece of bread that was stuck in the chain. 

“Yes,” Brainy replied unnecessarily. “It seemed like a good idea at the time. But we could... pretend I didn’t. If you’d prefer.”

Nia began to laugh, looking between Brainy’s uncomfortable expression and the necklace she held dangled from her fingertips. “It’s beautiful, Brainy,” she told him once she could speak again. “But really- you don’t need to buy me anything else, okay? Just spend time with me; that’s all I want.”

Brainy frowned, deliberating. “Alright..” he agreed reluctantly. “Though, I won’t promise not to buy you anything ever again. I... I rather enjoy doing it. I have no real other use for money than to buy food and gifts for you.”

Nia let her head fall to one said, gazing at him with a smile on her face. “You’re really sweet, do you know that?” she asked, reaching out and putting her hand on top of his.

He looked down at it, like he had when she had taken his hand while they walked. A faint smile crossed his face. “Sweet....” he repeated slowly. “I don’t know that anyone has ever called me ‘sweet’ before. I believe... I believe that I like it. I believe that I like _you_ , Nia Nal. And.... that I would like further opportunities for you to call me sweet and.... hold my hand in the way that you are doing. Both waffle and pancake style.”

A smile would have broken of Nia’s face, but it was already there. “What’re you saying, Brainy?” she asked gently.

“I am saying that...” Brainy flipping his hand so it was palm up, mirroring hers. “I’m saying that I would like you to be my girlfriend. And possibly my wife.”

“Whoa, slow down!” Nia laughed, grinning at him. “Let’s start with the first one, okay? I would like that, too.”

Brainy’s spine straightened and he looked rather pleased with himself. “I believe that that works out very well, then,” he said, looking over at her with a soft gaze. “So, Nia Nal. Would you like some s’mores?”

Nia’s eyes went big and she nodded eagerly. At this rate, she was going to be in love with Brainy in no time at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “I’m saying that I would like you to be my girlfriend. And possibly my wife.”
> 
> That may just be the best Brainia line I've ever written and I say that with a full knowledge of the dozens and dozens of Brainia stories I've crafted over the past year+
> 
> Looking back on this fanfiction is so fascinating to me... I almost predicted their early Season 5 conversation about Brainy not going overboard. I guess it really IS in character for him to do something like that.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Lex Luthor uses Nia to try and break Brainy, just because he thinks it’d be fun. 
> 
> Spoilers: Spoilers for 4x22, but it is a massive cannon divergence so you don’t need to know like any other part of the plot because I just ignore it lol

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiiii I'm back! This is one of a few chapters that I wrote spinning off of the end of Season 4.
> 
> I promise... eventually I will be caught up with posting and these chapters will be about stuff more relevant to Season 5. For now, enjoy the throw backs haha ;)

The entire time Brainy was screaming after Nia, being rebooted, and attacking six armed guards at once, he had no idea that he was being watched. 

“Oh ho...” Lex Luthor murmured, staring at the security feed in rapture. “Now- now this could be interesting. Oh yes... breaking him could be rather fun.”

He spun around to one of the two guards standing watch in the doorway. “One of you! Who was this alien brought in with?”

One guard, the older one, glanced at the other. Lex rolled his eyes. “Sorry,” he gritted. “Would you like to _phone a friend?”_

“Uh, n-no, no,” the older guard managed, resisting the urge to glance to his left again. “Uh... we’ve- we’ve seen a lot of aliens brought in, sir, but... I’m pretty sure- almost _positive_ \- that it was that superhero-vigilante girl. Uh- uh, Dreamer.”

Lex turned back to the screen and rewatched the footage, this time without sound. “Yes...” he murmured as he observed the transformation from protective friend to emotionless destroyer once more. “He will be quite fun to play with. Bring him to me and lock him up so that he cannot escape!”

The older guard hurried off to do Lex’s bidding, and Lex turned to the younger one. “And then bring me this Dreamer. And one of those electric stick things.”

The guard nodded and also ran off. They both knew it wasn’t wise to keep Lex Luthor waiting.

Precisely twelve and a half minutes later, Brainy had been apprehended and locked into a wooden chair with chains. No technology to control meant that he wasn’t about to escape anytime soon.

Nia had been brought in from her container and was strapped by her wrists and chest to a silver chair. A bag had been placed over both her and Brainy’s heads, but when Lex walked into the room the bags were lifted. 

“Brainy!” Nia cried.

Brainy looked past her, expression not even fluttering. Lex watched the interaction with interest. It seemed that this “Brainy” had somehow shut off all emotion. It was an interesting feat, probably only capable of someone who was techno-organic. 

“Hellooooo, everybody!” Lex greeted, raising his hands in the air and waving them around a few times. Nia watched him with wide eyes, but Brainy continued to stare at the same spot of wall just beyond Nia’s shoulder. “I have brought you here today to have a bit of fun.”

He walked over and slapped Brainy lightly in the face. Nia flinched as if _she_ had been hit, but Brainy didn’t even twitch. “You see,” Lex continued, turning around to face Nia. “Your little friend here has been... rebooted. Or so he says. I’m not exactly sure what that means, but I’d rather like to find out.”

He sauntered over to Nia and put his hand on her cheek. She squirmed, trying to get away from him. “He seemed to like you quite a bit before my guards got to him,” Lex went on. “He was positively _broken_ up when you got taken away. I’m pretty sure that he even cried.”

Nia glanced over at Brainy, the skin between her eyebrows creasing. Brainy didn’t look back. 

“What- what do you mean he’s been... rebooted?” Nia spoke up, hating for having to ask _Lex Luthor_ about something of importance to her.

Lex shrugged. “His words, not mine!” he chirped. “But he does seem a bit different, don’t you think?”

Nia nodded absently, trying to reposition her head so Brainy was looking at her. He kept staring at the same spot, nearly unblinking. “Can you... fix him?” Nia asked, voice shaking slightly.

“Well, that’s what I’m gonna try,” Lex told her. “Or really... I’m gonna _break him_.”

He held out his hand and received one of his electric pokers, and then stuck it into Nia’s side. Unprepared for the sudden onslaught of pain, Nia let out a scream and doubled over. Brainy blinked, but it was hard to tell if it was because of the scream or simply because he needed to.

Lex pulled the poker back, letting Nia catch her breath. He glanced between Brainy and Nia, trying to figure out if he was wrong.

But then he remembered the anguished look on Brainy’s face, noticeable even through the security feeds, when Nia had been dragged away from him. He had looked near tears then. And there had definitely been tears on her behalf later. No, Lex was right. Lex was _always_ right.

He stuck the electric-tipped poker into Nia’s side again, and let her writhe about in pain for awhile, watching Brainy’s face. His eyes, at least, had moved to rest on her. He seemed to be looking slightly... confused. 

Nia was gasping, and Lex removed the stick. She crumpled forward, chin brushing her chest, held up only by the strap around her shoulders. Brainy slowly turned his gaze to Lex. “Why are you... doing this to her?” he asked, voice flat.

“To see if I can get a reaction,” Lex told him, observing thoughtfully. 

“Well then.” Brainy sat back, curiosity sated and eyes studiedly blank. “If you wanted to get a reaction you should have told your guards not to reboot me. I have no..... reactions. I don’t care about _her_.”

Nia’s head shot up and her eyes, already red, welled up with tears. “What the heck is wrong with you?!” she screamed. “Brai- _ah- AHH_ -”

Lex had rammed her with the electric stick again. Tears started to stream down Nia’s face. “Please-” she screamed, squirming away from the pain but getting nowhere. “Please- please stop- _please_ -!”

“Begging is no sign of a hero,” Brainy told her blandly. “Supergirl would be disappointed.”

Lex took the poker away and Nia lifted her head. Her entire body was trembling and she was breathing heavily. “How- how could you say that?” she asked, her voice breaking. “Brainy- you’re my _family_.”

Brainy’s left eye twitched. He blinked a few times, rapidly, and his leg jerked. Then all reactions to that statement faded and he continued to stare blankly in Nia’s direction.

Lex was intrigued. But he was also getting bored. He wanted to know what was going to break Brainy and he wanted to know _now_. He raised the poker and swung it like a baseball bat into Nia’s face. There was a crack, a groan, and when the poker fell blood was streaming down Nia’s face. 

There was a shaky intake of breath from behind Lex. He spun around to find that Brainy was trembling all over, head jerking repeatedly to the left like he was trying to get water out of his ear. “D-d-d-d-don’t-” he muttered, his voice sounding more normal and less low and robotic. “D-d-d-d-don’t....”

Nia’s eyes fluttered, blood streaming from her broken nose. “Brainy?” she whispered, lips trembling.

Brainy jerked his arms, chains holding tight. Lex took a step back, and then moved the poker back to Nia’s side. She let out another scream and Brainy let out an answering yell of anguish, tears spilling out of his eyes in a sudden rush. “D-d-don’t- D-d-d-don’t- DON’T HURT HER! STOP! DON’T HURT HER!”

Over the sound of Nia’s screams, Brainy let out a cry and wrenched his arms upward. Somehow, with a superhuman feat of strength that Lex didn’t even know was possible for a non-kryptonian, the chains snapped. Brainy ran forward, tripped, but still managed to tackle Lex. The two of them crashed to the ground and rolled, guns aiming and cocking all around them. No one dared shoot, however, because of the chance they could hit Lex. The guards shifted, looking at each other nervously, waiting for a clean hit. 

Brainy leapt to his feet once the rolling stopped and punched Lex in the face. A gun behind him fired and he ducked, fingers locking behind his back. Then, using the chains still attached to his wrist, he flicked out his hand and caught the ankle of the nearest guard. With another flick of the wrist, Brainy sent the guard flying into the two next to him. 

In seconds and a few more maneuvers, the seven-some guards that had been scattered around the room were either unconscious or groaning on the floor. Brainy ran up to Nia. “Nia-” he panted, falling to his knees and placing his hands on either side of her face. “Oh my God, Nia-”

Brainy put his arms around her and hugged her so tightly that Nia could barely breath, rocking back and forth slightly. His shoulders began to shake violently and Nia realized he was crying.

“It’s okay,” she soothed, her voice stuffy from her broken nose. “It’s going to be okay.”

Brainy pulled back and hastily wiped his cheeks. “I will- I will get you untied immediately,” he mumbled, pulling randomly at straps and tugging at things until Nia’s bounds became undone. Weak from pain, she bent at the waist and Brainy caught her by the shoulders, pulling her up into his arms. 

“I am.. so sorry,” he murmured, tucking his face into her neck and holding her tightly. Nia rested her head against his shoulder, his skin warm from exertion, and shut her eyes. Brainy could feel her body trembling. “I promise you,” he went on, voice low. “I will- I will never get that way again. I will never look on while  
you are- are being hurt, and- and I will never say that you are a disappointment and-”

His voice broke. “I was rebooted,” he whimpered. “I was rebooted but it is no excuse.”

“It’s okay,” Nia whispered again. “I forgive you, Brainy. You weren’t yourself. Let’s just get out of here and go home, okay?”

He nodded, face wet against her skin, and then looked up as he took off into the air. When they landed at the DEO Nia lifted her head, confused. “Brainy, why are we here?” she asked, looking up at him.

“Your nose...” Brainy swallowed and glanced down at her. She suddenly realized there was blood caked on her face and staining the collar of his shirt. “It needs... tending to.”

Nia nodded slowly and reached up a hesitant hand, brushing her face. She winced. “I think it’s broken.”

“It needs tending to,” Brainy repeated, head bobbling as he suddenly seemed filled with a sort of frantic energy. Keeping her tight in his arms, he strode towards the medical bay. “Director Danvers! Your presence is required immediately!”

Alex glanced up and was soon running up the steps. “Nia!” she cried. “What on Earth happened?”

“Lex Luthor happened,” Nia grumbled, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed at being in Brainy’s arms, bridal style, like a damsel in distress. Especially in front of Alex, who had probably never had to be carried away from a fight like this in her life. “Brainy, you can... put me down now.”

“I will do no such thing-”

“Brainy!”

He hurriedly set her back on her feet. Immediately, Nia’s legs gave out, and Brainy was forced to catch her around the waist again. “See!” he cried, giving her a frustrated look. “This is exactly why I was carrying you. Lex Luthor was not _gentle_ with you, Nia Nal. Please let me help.”

Nia’s face was burning with embarrassment and she felt like she might cry. She felt Alex take her open arm and she and Brainy took her to the med bay. 

“Alright, do you two want to tell me exactly what happened?” Alex demanded as she took a clean cloth and began to wipe at the blood coating Nia’s face. 

Brainy’s head dipped in shame. “I was... rebooted,” he murmured. “And stood idly by as Lex Luthor tortured her to get a reaction of me.”

Alex’s eyebrows went up, but she didn’t comment or judge. Nia hurried to jump in and defend Brainy. “But- but he came back to himself,” she added. “And then he took out seven guard and- and punched Lex Luthor in the face, and busted out of chains and everything, all to save me.”

“I was the one that put you in that position!” Brainy yelled. His hands flew up to his hair, tugging at it. Nia reached for him but he spun away, breaking into a frantic pace. “I- I put you in danger. Even just my- my _reaction_ to you being taken away- it put you in danger! Lex Luthor _knew_ \- He-he knew what would break me- he knew that I love you!”

Brainy stopped mid step and pivoted on his heel. Nia was watching him with wide eyes and Alex’s eyebrows were even higher. 

“I... I am sorry,” Brainy murmured, his shoulder slumping. “I hadn’t wished for you to find out in this way.”

Nia pushed herself into a sitting position. “Brainy,” she said gently. “Come here.”

Eyes cast downward and cheeks turning dark with embarrassment, Brainy walked over to Nia’s bed and clasped his hands in front of him. “I apologize, Nia Nal,” he murmured. “You deserve.... you deserve more than me.”

Alex turned and quietly left the room as Nia reached out and put her hand over Brainy’s. “Stop it,” she ordered him gently. “I deserve _you_. And that’s a good thing, because I want you, too.”

Brainy sat down heavily on the bed. Nia took his hand and stroked the back of it with her thumb. “Okay?” she continued, reaching out and wiping a lone tear off of Brainy’s cheek with her thumb. “Brainy, I want _you_.”

“Why?” he asked, peering at her. 

Nia shrugged and gave him a half-smile. “Because I love you, too.”

“Even after... everything?” Brainy asked uncertainly.

“ _Especially_ after everything,” Nia told him, and kissed him. 

When Brainy pulled back, he looked at her with so much emotion that it made Nia’s stomach flip. He reached up and swiped at his eyes, dragging his hand down his face. “You are.... so beautiful,” he murmured, looking at her with his head slightly tilted and a furrow between his eyebrows. “I don’t think I will ever see how someone as- as incredible as you could want someone like me.”

Nia took his hand again. “Then I will spend the rest of my life trying to show you why,” she whispered.

He kissed her this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'alllllllll even to this day I'm still so dang obsessed with Sadpuppy!Brainy :')))


	5. A Whole New World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Brainy takes Nia flying.
> 
> Spoilers: None (‘bout time amiright I need to chill with the cannon divergent stories XD)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my defense.... I wrote this RIGHT after seeing the Live Action Aladdin movie. Which is, btw, REALLY REALLY GOOD.

Nia was standing on her balcony, getting some fresh air before she went to sleep, when a sudden figure rose into the air in front of her.

Nia let out a scream and stumbled backward, before she realized who it was. “Brainy!” she cried, hand over her pounding heart. “You scared the heck out of me!”

“I apologize, Nia Nal,” Brainy said, looking chagrined. He was floating a couple inches back from her balcony, his hands interlaced behind his back as they usually were. “I must admit that, when I got home, I... strangely couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

Nia’s eyebrows popped up and a small, pleased smile shot across her face. “Oh?” she managed lamely, unsure of how else to respond.

“Yes.” Brainy glanced down and realized how much taller he seemed than her as he was hovering in the air. “Before we continue with this conversation: May I... land?”

Nia laughed at how strange that sounded, and backed away from the railing. “Be my guest,” she said, holding out her hands in a welcoming gesture.

Brainy floated down and touched lightly to ground. His gaze flitted behind her. “Uh... is your roommate home?”

“Evette?” Nia glanced behind her as well, although she already knew the answer. “No, she’s at a friends house tonight.” Her brow furrowed. “I’m assuming you didn’t come to see her, though.”

Brainy looked alarmed. “Oh, no no,” he said hurriedly. “I would... rather like to avoid that, actually. I was really here to see you. And ask, well.... are you doing anything this evening?”

“Brainy, it’s a little late to go to dinner,” Nia said, smiling apologetically. “And I already ate.”

“As did I,” he nodded. “But that is not what I was going to ask. If you are free this evening... how would you like to go for a flight with me?”

Nia’s eyebrows popped up. “Um.... are you doing this because I said Aladdin was hot?” she asked, frowning suspiciously. The two of them, along with Kara and Alex, had gone to see the new live action Aladdin movie in theaters earlier that week. Kara and Nia had positively _swooned_ when Aladdin came on screen and started singing for the first time.

Brainy looked embarrassed. “I- well-” He huffed and crossed his arms. “How did you know?”

Nia burst into giggles. “Brainy, you don’t have to worry about competing with Aladdin,” she told him. “But hey, if you’re offering.... I’d love to fly with you.”

“Ah!” Brainy nodded and laced his hands behind his back again. “Good. Good, I am exceedingly pleased to hear that.” He held out an arm and nodded at her. “You are... going to have to get a bit, um... closer.”

Cheeks turning pink, Nia took a few quick steps closer to Brainy and stepped into the space between his chest and his arm. Brainy wrapped his arm around her waist and Nia put hers around his neck. “Please don’t drop me,” she said, only half teasing.

“I would never,” Brainy scoffed. “I would rather drop- myself... than you....?”

Nia frowned. “Uh...”

“That did not make any sense, please ignore that,” Brainy muttered, embarrassed, and lifted slowly into the air. 

As soon as her feet left the ground, Nia tightened her grip around Brainy’s neck by about two times. Brainy awkwardly patted her hip and moved carefully over the balcony.

“Where- where are we going?” Nia asked breathlessly, staring around her in amazement as the two of them flew over the city streets. She watched as the cars and people became smaller and smaller the higher they rose, and wasn’t expecting it when the roof of a building was suddenly yards below their feet. “Uh, Brainy? Exactly how high are you taking me?”

“It will.... take me a bit to run that calculation,” Brainy told her, frowning thoughtfully. “Would you like me to do it anyway?”

“Uh, no, no, that’s fine,” Nia murmured distractedly, head turning rapidly to catch everything around her. 

Brainy cleared his throat and waved a hand in stiff theatrics in front of him. “Uh... _I can show you the worldddd-_ ”

Nia burst into laughter, immediately felt guilty, but was unable to stop. “No- no, Brainy- don’t sing. Please don’t sing.”

“Oh.” He looked downcast, and they dropped a few inches in the sky. 

Nia nudged him as best she could with her arms around his neck. “Oh, don’t be sad. This is amazing! And you can do this every day?”

“It is my... preferred method of getting to work,” Brainy admitted with a small half-smile. “I am very pleased that you are enjoying it, Nia Nal. I would... be willing to do this again, if you would like.”

“I would like!” Nia cried, letting go of Brainy with one hand and trailing her fingers through the clouds above her head.

Unfortunately, she was in a ‘flying carpet‘ mindset, and didn’t think that letting go of Brainy so they were only connected by his hand wrapped around her waist and her arm slung over his shoulders would be a problem. 

It was a problem. Brainy’s grip slipped and as he let out a gasp of horror, Nia began to free-fall away from him. She let out a scream, trying to grasp at his hand but missing his fingertips by mere centimeters. She plunged toward the dark street below and a steadily increasing rate, hair flying up on either side of her face.

“NIA!” Brainy yelled, spinning into a rapid dive and shooting towards her. 

Nia flipped in the air so that she was face-down and spread out all her limbs, trying to slow her descent. “Catching me- anytime now- would be great!” she shrieked, voice carried away by the wind.

Suddenly, two hands grasped her waist and Nia was spun up into Brainy’s arms. Both their descents abruptly stopped and Nia was left, trembling and breathless, about seven yards above the sidewalk.

Brainy’s eyes were wide with panic. “This was- this was a bad idea,” he stuttered, hurriedly bringing them down to the ground so they were no longer flying and stumbling haphazardly away. “I should never- it was completely unsafe and I- I put you in danger and-”

“Brainy, it was my fault,” Nia told him, though her heart was still racing at a speed that made her dizzy. “I don’t know what I was thinking, letting go of you.”

Brainy set her back on her feet and Nia placed her hand on his shoulder, making sure she was steady. He searched her face, still looking terrified, and Nia smiled at him. “I really, _really_ enjoyed that,” she murmured, rubbing his shoulder in the same way she had when she told him she wanted to be apart of his family someday. “And I would love to do it again.”

Brainy swallowed. “I...” he started, then didn’t seem to know what to say. 

Nia leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. His eyes opened wide again and he seemed even more speechless. “Take me home?” Nia requested.

Brainy held out his hand to her. “I think that... it would be wise if we walked,” he said, and so they did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHAH i just have this absolutely HILARIOUS mental image of Brainy trying to start singing and Nia just like laughing and totally shutting him down- I NEED THIS IN THE SHOW NOW HELP XD


	6. Moments With You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: The in between Brainia moments in 4x22 
> 
> Spoilers: Spoilers for 4x22 (obviously XD)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oop it's another divergent fanfiction off of the season 4 finale.... I swear they won't all be like this XD

“You’re amazing!” Brainy yelled, staring around him in astonishment as, with the combined power of the Martian Manhunter and Dreamer, the machine before him began to overload. “You’re astounding! You’re- _astazing_ , Nia Nal!”

He hesitated for just a second, but then a look of utter devotion took over his face.

“And I love you.”

Nia let out a yell and the energy wave from the overloaded core suddenly threw all three of them back. Brainy rose to his knees and Nia did the same, pushing her hair back from her face with her spare hand. Their eyes locked, and Brainy’s heart did a strange back-flip movement in his chest.

J’onn J’onzz got to his feet with a groan. “Good work, Dreamer,” he panted. “That was very good work.”

“I....” Brainy glanced between the two of them and then hopped to a standing position. He looked down and held out his hand for Nia, who cautiously grasped it and let him help her to her feet. “Now that you are both focused on something other than, well, saving the world... I must apologize. My... torture put me inline with my ancestors and they... well, their influence is not the best. I- I put you both in great danger and-”

Nia grabbed him by the shoulders and Brainy abruptly stopped speaking. Her face was centimeters from his and her eyes were wide and dark. “Shut up,” she muttered, and kissed him hard on the lips.

Behind them, J’onn’s eyebrows shot skyward and he stifled a laugh. Brainy didn’t hear a thing, hands floating up to frame Nia’s face. Nia started to smile too hard and had to break apart to avoid clacking teeth. 

Brainy’s hands were still on Nia’s cheeks. She smiled widely. “Brainy, are you shaking?”

He held up his hand and watched his fingers trembling. “I believe that.... you scared me, just a bit, Nia Nal.”

“Just a bit?”

“Okay maybe a lot,” Brainy admitted, and laughed.

J’onn cleared his throat. “Uh... I’m just gonna go free the aliens now,” he snickered, backing slowly towards the exit.

Nia glanced over. “J’onn!” she gaped, turning red. “We were just- um- I just had to-”

“Well this is.... awkward,” Brainy said, grinning widely. “Nia Nal and I just had some... unfinished business to attend to.”

“So I see,” J’onn snorted. “Well, you two keep going with that... unfinished business and I’m going to leave you to do that.” Nia started to protest but he cut her off. “I really do _not_ need any help!”

Laughing and red faced, the two of them watching J’onn jog out of the control room and disappear. 

“So...” Nia turned back to Brainy and bit her lip, trying to hold in her smile. “What you said, when I was... trying to explode that thing. Did you-?”

“I meant every word,” Brainy assured her. “I’m not even sure some of those were words, but- but I love you so, _so_ much. I have never loved anyone as much as I love you and- it’s a little scary. But- but I don’t care because I love you!”

“Really, do you?” Nia teased, smiling breaking out of the weak hold of her teeth and blooming across her face.

He raised his hands to her face again and brushed her hair back, stroking her cheekbone with his thumb. “Yes,” he whispered, looking at her with such a gentle gaze that Nia all but melted. “I love you so much and.... I am just going to keep saying it over and over because I have missed so very many opportunities to tell it to you.”

“I love you too, Brainy,” Nia murmured, covering his hand at his face with her own. “And if you want to tell me that every day for the rest of our lives I would absolutely love that.” 

Brainy leaned down and brushed their lips together again. “I think...” he murmured, resting his forehead against hers. “That we should probably leave this building.”

Nia’s eyebrows raised. “Oh?”

“Yes,” Brainy nodded. “Because Supergirl is still fighting Lex Luthor and possibly Lockwood and she could use our help.”

“Right!” Nia cried, clapping her hand to her forehead. “Right, of course!” 

Before they ran off, Brainy reached out his hand. A bright smile crossed Nia’s face and she intertwined her fingers with his. “I love you,” she murmured, resting her cheek against his shoulder. “Just because I can say it.”

Brainy kissed the top of her head. “Let us go, Dreamer,” he said. “And kick some butt together as a superhero couple for the _very_ first time.”

Nia grinned and the two of them raced off.

**W / T \ Y**

Nia and Brainy had basically been attached at the hip since they and J’onn destroyed the power core and saved all the aliens. Besides a few hours when Nia checked in at her job and Brainy organized a few things at the DEO, they hadn’t been seen without each other.

At the moment they were curled up on Brainy’s couch, Brainy’s arm wrapped around Nia’s waist, hand playing with her fingers, her head on his shoulder. “We should probably get going if we are going to make it to J’onn’s game night in time.”

J’onn had thought it would be a good idea for everyone to come over to his office for a game night to relax and hang out. Nia, Brainy, Kara, Alex, Lena, James and even Kelly had all been invited, and Brainy was thinking that this would be a good place as any to reveal the wonderful news that he and Nia were officially together and very much in love. 

Nia hummed and nuzzled her head into a more comfortable position on Brainy’s shoulder. He looked down at her fondly and she glanced up to kiss him quickly on the lips. “You’re right,” she said reluctantly, standing up and stretching. “We’ll be late.”

Now that she was no longer tucked into his side, Brainy was beginning to regret bringing up the idea of leaving. “Well...” he edged, but then Nia held out her hand to him and wiggled her fingers.

Brainy was quickly finding that he could simply just not refuse Nia Nal’s extended hand. He hopped up and grabbed hold. 

“Let’s walk,” Nia suggested, leading him towards the door and grabbing her purse and coat off the back of a chair along the way. “I don’t feel like taking the bus.”

That sounded good enough to Brainy, so walked down the staircase of his apartment and onto the sidewalk. 

They were about a block and a half away from J’onn’s place when Nia noticed two people she recognized standing on the street and kissing. She nudged Brainy. “Oh my gosh. Is that Alex and Kelly?”

Brainy looked astonished. “Yes...” he said slowly. “it would appear that way.”

As they squeezed past, Brainy held up his “entrance fee” to Game Night (a assorting bag of snacks) over his face. “Fear not, we see nothing,” he said, voice barely holding in his laughter as Alex and Kelly broke apart and looked over at them in surprise.

Nia glanced over her shoulder and offered them a wave. She made it about three more yards before she started fangirling. “Oh my gosh! Kelly and Alex? I literally did _not_ see that coming.”

Brainy glanced over his shoulder, trying to get a last look at them before they turned the corner. “I do not believe that I see very many.... _couples_ “coming”, as you say.”

Nia snorted. “No, no, I don’t believe that you do,” she agreed.

They reached J’onn’s office and Nia knocked on the door. Kara opened in up in seconds. “Hey!” she greeted, before her eyes went to Nia and Brainy’s hands and she let out an ear-splitting squeal. “Ohhhh my gosh. Oh my gosh! You guys- you guys are-?”

“Yes,” Brainy nodded, stepping sedately inside the doorway. He lifted Nia’s hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it. “We are.... together. And very much in love.”

“Yep,” Nia giggled awkwardly. The look she sent Kara managed to be a mix of glowing happiness, embarrassment, and apology.

Kara’s mouth fell open and she backed up, pointing a finger at Nia. “I’m going to need- all the details. All of them.”

“Okay,” Nia agreed, laughing, and she and Brainy walked further into the room.

“Ah, there you two are!” J’onn called from the couch. “Still together, I see.”

Kara’s jaw dropped. “You know about this?!”

“Oh, I was there when they started making out and confessing their love to each other,” J’onn said casually.

Nia coughed and shifted her weight and Brainy gave J’onn an amazed look. “You are... much more devious than I originally conceived, J’onn J’onzz,” he said, blinking a few times.

“Thank you,” J’onn accepted, grinning.

Kelly and Alex took that moment to walk through the door. Brainy was grasping for something to get the attention (which he had previously desired but decided he didn’t actually want) off of him and Nia. “Well- well- _they_ were just kissing in the middle of the sidewalk!”

“Please,” Alex scoffed, not even fluttered by the accusation. “We were totally pulled off to the side.”

She slung her arm around Kelly’s shoulders and kissed her on the cheek. Kara looked like she might faint. “Everyone- ah!!” she squeaked. “I’m so happy! You all are so happy and I’m so happy!”

“If James and Lena walk in holding hands, I don’t think Kara will be able to stay upright,” Kelly teased. 

“Awww, can that happen please?” Kara whined. “I want that to happen.”

Now that nearly everyone was there, they settled down into chairs. There was enough space for all of them (J’onn had, of course, made sure of that), but Nia ended up sitting on the arm of Brainy’s chair anyway. 

As Alex and Kara argued playfully over what game they should play, Nia took the moment to drape her arm around Brainy and rest her chin on his shoulder. “So was telling everyone about us as great as you had hoped it would be?” she teased.

Brainy pulled a face. “I was.... expecting some excitement, but I was not thinking I would get so... embarrassed.”

“It was cute,” Nia told him, laughing.

“Hey, you two!” Alex called over. “Get a room!”

“We’re _talking_!” Nia protested with another laugh. 

“You were the one kissing someone on the street, if you recall,” Brainy huffed, turning red all over again.

Alex rolled her eyes. “Which you would never have seen if you hadn’t been walking there that very moment,” she huffed. “You really need to get over it.”

“Yeah,” Kelly added, smirking. “The street was empty when we started kissing. We at least have an excuse.”

“We were talking!” Nia protested again, voice about eight decibels higher. 

The group around them laughed, and Kara looked around at her family with the happiest expression Nia had possibly ever seen on her face. “You know what?” she said generously, looking over to Brainy. “Why don’t you pick the game?”

Brainy, Nia’s arm around his shoulders and her thigh brushing his chest, smiled widely. “Oh, I know _precisely_ what we should play.”


	7. Rewrite the Reboot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Brainy doesn’t get rebooted, and then goes and saves his girl :)  
> Spoilers: Spoilers for 4x21 and maybe 4x22?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh look it's another spin off of the Season 4 finale this is getting kiiiiiinda embarrassing XD

Brainy’s hands were invisible, covered up with metal domes. He could feel the technology itching the back of his brain, waiting to be hacked.

But there was too much going on. They had Nia. That was literally the _only_ thing that mattered. His brain was completely consumed by the one happening, and the fact that he could do absolutely nothing about it.

Nothing but beg.

“Please,” he cried, feeling tears pooling along the bottom part of his eyelid. “Please- don’t hurt her. Do- do whatever you want to me but just- _don't. Hurt her_.”

“Don’t worry.” One of Lex’s men, helmet-less and with neat dark hair and some thin scruff, was standing in front of him. He seemed to be the only one authorized to speak, even though there were four other guards in the room. “She’s next.”

Brainy felt a spike of pure, unadulterated rage sear through his stomach. Nia, the most caring, wholesome, kind, incredible, _beautiful_ woman he had ever known had no part in this. They had no reason to harm her. 

He jerked against his bindings so hard he nearly felt his shoulders dislocate. “You _will not hurt her_ -”

He was suddenly slammed in the face with a slate of something. His head bounced off the back of his chair for a moment Brainy couldn’t think or see. His head buzzed and his ears rang, and he couldn’t focus on anything in front of him.

“You..... hurt.... no........” he mumbled, tasting his own blood. He must have bitten his tongue. His head slumped sideways, darkness invading his vision. 

“He’s done,” the guard said, voice through a tunnel, turning his back and walking away.

They were going to get Nia. If they left him, right now, they would _kill Nia Nal_.

“No.” Brainy’s eyes flickered. The blue AI globes on his forehead were buzzing. “No. _NO!_ You cannot- you will not- don’t- hurt- her!”

The guard turned slowly back around and waved at one of the other gunmen to lower his weapon. 

Brainy wasn’t sure that he had ever been so angry in his life. His brain had gone from fuzzy and busy to suddenly razor sharp. He was buzzing all over. His mind was clear. He could feel the technology, at his fingertips for him to use.

“You have made... a _catastrophic_ mistake.” Brainy grit out, his voice hollow. 

“Yeah?” the guard took a step forward. “And what is that?”

Shutting his eyes briefly, Brainy sent his mind into the mainframe. In seconds, he felt the clamps on his hands release. “Yes,” he said flatly. “You underestimated me.”

With that, Brainy burst out of his bonds. All of the guns raised and fired but Brainy dodged and weaved. He flitted out a few fingers and slammed pressure points on the guards shoulders, jugulars and chests. Soon, they were on the ground, unconscious.

J’onn J’onzz came running into the room at that moment. “Brainy!” he cried. “What happened?”

Brainy ignored the question. Everything was irrelevant except Nia. “I must find Dreamer,” he said shortly, turning away from J’onn so he could focus on breaking into the computers again. He forced his brain between firewalls and passwords and soon had her location in the front of his mind. “I will rescue her. You.... wait here.” 

He jogged off, leaving J’onn to stare after him in amazement and look around at the mess of bodies he’d left strewn across the ground. 

Nia was being held in a shipping container. Brainy opened the doors easily and stepped inside. “Brainy!” Nia gasped, amazed.

“Nia Nal.” Brainy stepped carefully into the room, mind already working into the mainframe of the technology holding Nia captive. “I have come to rescue you. Give me... four seconds to get you out of your bindings.”

“But... how did you escape?” Nia asked, looking down in astonishment as her cuffs popped open. “You can hack a network now?”

“Yes,” Brainy told her, coming to stop in front of her. “My brain is... clear, suddenly. But- but that is unimportant because... there’s something I have to tell you.”

He knelt down and held out his hand. “Brainy?” Nia asked, a blush fluttering across her cheeks. She carefully reached out her hand and placed it in Brainy’s. 

He covered it with his other one. “Nia Nal...” he murmured, gazing up at her. “I have come to a conclusion...” He stopped, and jumped to his feet. “No, no, that’s not how I want to say it.”

Nia was trying hard not to laugh. “Brainy, what’s up with you?” she asked. “First your say that you’re asking how tacos work and then you’re wanting us to be alone and now...?”

“Yes, yes, there _is_ something up with me.” Brainy knelt back down and took Nia’s hand again.

Nia’s eyes went wide. “Holy crud- you’re not proposing, are you? I mean- I don’t know how it works in the future but usually two people date for awhile before they jump to-”

“What?” Brainy looked taken aback. He leapt back up to standing and hopped away a few steps. “What? Oh no, no, no- I am not... I am not proposing, Nia Nal. Not yet. I mean- I mean, no. I am not proposing.”

Nia let out a breath. “Okay, good,” she breathed, giggling nervously. “So then... what were you going to say?”

“Uh...” Brainy muttered, reaching up his hands and messing up his hair with a frantic rub. He spun around a few times in a short, pacing like motions, but then came back to Nia’s side. “Over- over the past few months, I have gotten to know you. Obviously. Obviously I have gotten to know you because, well, we were working together. Are working together. We are still.... working together....”

Nia’s eyebrows raised slowly and she leaned in a little, making a ‘go on’ face.

Brainy messed up his hair again and suddenly looked near tears. “I cannot- I cannot say it!” he cried. “All of my big- useless- brains- and I can’t even tell you that I love you!”

Both of them stopped and Brainy blinked a few times. “Oh,” he muttered, looking away. “Oh, I guess I just did, didn’t I?”

Nia laughed, giving him an amused look. “Yes, yes you did,” she said, shaking her head. 

Brainy let out a sigh and went from his knees to a sitting position. “I must admit that I had an entire speech planned,” he winced. “That clearly... did _not_ end up happening.”

Nia giggled and reached down to wipe Brainy’s cheek. “Stop crying, goofball,” she murmured affectionately. “I love you, too.”

He looked taken aback. “I’m not- crying-” He pressed his fingers to his cheeks and found them damp. “I really need to work on not leaking like this. It’s not very... manly.” 

Nia laughed again. “I don’t need you to be manly, Brainy,” she told him. “I promise. A manly Brainy would just... be weird. I just want you to be nerdy, adorable, awkward _you_.”

“I thought that...” Brainy frowned. “I thought that the general preference of woman was men with good abs, who- who sang in boy bands.”

Nia shook her head and got to her feet. “Come on, you big dork,” she said, reaching out to squeeze his hand. “I would love to have a conversation with you about women and their preference in men, but I think that we have to go save the world first.”

Brainy’s eyes went wide. “Ah!” he cried. “I left J’onn J’onzz and said I was going to get you! I’m afraid I may have been a bit.... short with him. I was rather worried about you, after all.”

Nia shook her head again, fondly, and stopped him before they could leave the container. “Hug?” she offered, hair sliding over her shoulder in the most endearing way possible.

Brainy opened up his arms and she stepped into them, resting her cheek against his shoulder. “I am... extremely glad you’re alright,” Brainy whispered, petting her hair in a slightly stiff, unpracticed way. 

“You too,” Nia murmured, and reluctantly pulled back. “Come on,” she urged, taking hold of his hand. “Let’s go save the world.”


	8. Understanding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: After seeing Alex remember Kara, Nia misses her sister. Brainy comforts 
> 
> Spoilers: You need to watch Season 4, basically ;)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Great news everyone: By the end of this chapter I had started watching season 5! I think this is the last Season 4 tag and then we'll finnnnnally be getting into not-cannon specific OR relevant-cannon specific fics.

They had defeated Lex Luthor, and things were finally starting to calm down. Nia, sitting in a hard, straight backed chair in the DEO, had the first moments to herself since she had been locked up by the anti-alien group. 

She thought back on what had happened over the past few hours. After Brainy had confessed his love to her, and Nia had overloaded the power core, the two of them had sat staring at each other in shock until J’onn urged them to their feet to go and help the still captured aliens. 

They hadn’t had a chance to talk until they both got an official clean bill of health from the DEO medical squad. Nia had been just sat up on the gurney when Brainy had walked slowly into the room and sat down next to her. She had taken his hand and put her head on his shoulder, and they had sat in silence for awhile.

When Nia had worked up enough courage, she spoke. “Hey, Brainy? I love you.”

Brainy had turned his face and pressed a kiss to the top of her hair. “I love you, too,” he had murmured, and they continued to sit on the bed for a long time afterword.

Now Brainy was dealing with some DEO stuff, and Nia was left alone to sit in her chair and watch the goings on around her. Kara and Alex came into the main room of the DEO, arms around each other and smiling brightly. Kara was in her Supergirl suit, and Nia remembered how happy she had looked when she had told her that Alex remembered everything.

Nia felt a stab of unfair jealousy in her stomach at the sight of the two of them laughing and teasing each other. Alex’s mind had been _wiped_ , and yet she had made it back to Kara, whereas Nia hadn’t heard from her sister in over a month.

Nia tugged up her legs so they were curled in the chair and put her chin on top of her knees. She understood why Maeve was upset. She had basically based her life around getting her mother’s dream powers, and then Nia had stepped in and stolen that from her. But it was more than that. Maeve’s last words before they had parted had hurt Nia more than she liked to admit. She had always been blessed with an incredibly understanding family. But now was she supposed to believe that, deep down, Maeve had never really seen her as a real woman?

Nia shut her eyes. She didn’t want to think. She didn’t want to be at the DEO. She just wanted to go home and have a good cry. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t have a ride home, and she was _way_ too exhausted to walk. And she couldn’t exactly call an Uber to a top-secret government facility.

Nia got to her feet. She remembered Brainy saying that there were overnight rooms in a back part of the DEO. She would find one with a bed and curl up and cry for awhile.

The thought was so incredibly inviting that Nia felt the sting of tears already starting behind her eyeballs. She made sure her path was clear, ducked her head, and then power walked toward the side hallway leading towards the overnight rooms. She found one without too much trouble and ducked inside, locking the door firmly behind her.

There was a cot on the floor with a thin grey blanket folded at the end. Nia sat down, the cot barely cushioning the cement, and then curled up on her side. Then the tears came. It was 3:30 in the morning, she had barely slept in three days, and besides that she missed her sister and her mother and every sense of normalcy that she had lost when she became Dreamer.

There was a knock at the door. Nia jolted to a sitting position and put her hand over her mouth to muffle a sob. Of _all_ the rooms that someone had decided to crash in, they had to pick hers.

“May I... enter?” a voice asked, muffled through the door beyond recognition.

Nia stayed quiet. She didn’t want to see anyone in the mess she was in. Her eyes were red and blotchy from exhaustion and tears, her hair was a mess, and she needed a shower. The only clothes available to her so she could change out of her Dreamer getup were a pair of guys sweatpants and one of Alex’s extra exercise shirts.

The knock came again. “I had calculated a 60% chance that you would do this after I left you, but regardless I did not take the necessary steps to ensure that you didn’t.”

Nia’s mind was too glazed over to understand exactly what the voice meant, but one thing she _did_ know was that there was only one person who talked like that. 

“I _will_ break down this door, Nia Nal,” Brainy said, knocking again.

Despite herself, Nia let out a soft laugh. “You don’t need to do that,” she croaked, voice stuffy, as she stood up to go unbolt the door.

Brainy’s gaze softened when he saw her. “You do not look well,” he told her tenderly, stepping in through the doorway and letting her close the door behind him again. “Is there anything I can... get you?”

“Could you just hold me for a little while?” Nia asked, voice breaking uncomfortably as she reached the end of her sentence. 

Brainy nodded, eyebrows scrunching in concern, and followed her over to her cot. She laid down and he slid behind her, tugging her into his arms. She could feel the warmth of his breath on the back of her neck and, suddenly drained, she shut her eyes.

“Would you... like to talk about it?” Brainy asked after awhile. 

“I miss my sister,” Nia murmured. “I want so badly to call her and- and tell her everything. About becoming Dreamer, and saving the world.... about _you_...”

“So why can’t you?”

“We didn’t part on good terms,” Nia explained, a tear dribbling out of her eye and sliding vertically down to her hairline. “She wanted to get the dream powers and I did. And she- she was so angry. She was grieving, and she- she said-” Nia stopped, throat closing. 

“What did she say to you?” Brainy asked gently, rubbing his hand up and down her arm. 

“She- she asked me how I could g-get the powers without being a real- a real woman,” Nia managed finally, and let out a dry sob. 

Brainy tugged her even closer and buried nose into the back of her neck. “Of course you are a real woman, Nia Nal,” he murmured, pressing his lips briefly to her skin. 

“I know that. That’s not the problem,” Nia replied, sighing and shutting her eyes again. “I just never- I never knew that that’s how she saw me. As not a real woman. I mean, I know that transgender people can be hard for others to understand but... she always seemed to support me and my decision so much when we were kids. She- she always defended me from bullies and she even yelled at a guy who refused to go to a dance with me.”

“I am so sorry, Nia Nal,” Brainy whispered. “Have you tried... calling her, yet? Or contacting her in any way?”

Nia shook her head, guilt settling in her stomach. “I just- I was too afraid. I was also angry, at first. I wanted her to be the one to make the first move. And- and I was busy, and we were saving the world, and-”

“One thing I have learned,” Brainy said slowly, moving his hand off her arm and draping it over her hip so his fingers were covering hers. “Is that, when you are a human, you will always think there will be more time with the people you love. Time to... mend relationships, and to say what you feel. But, when you are a superhero... you do not always get that time. It is- it is why I told you I love you. I would have kept waiting for a time when things had- had settled down. But you were risking your life; you could have _died_ , and I suddenly realized that I did not know what I was waiting for.”

Nia was quiet for a moment. “Thanks, Brainy,” she murmured, unable to do much more than rub the hand that was settled over her waist. “That was a pretty good pep talk.”

“Thank you,” he accepted graciously. “Would you like me to take you home now?”

Less than an hour ago, that would have been all that Nia wanted. But now she was somehow comfortable on the thin cot on the cold cement. It probably had something to do with the warmth of Brainy’s body pressing against hers, his arm a reassuring weight around her.

“Can we just... stay here for awhile?” she asked tentatively. 

Brainy nodded and repositioned himself so he was more comfortable. “I will stay here with you for as long as you need, Nia Nal,” he murmured gently.

Nia closed her eyes, shoulders relaxing, and was asleep in seconds.


	9. Training

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Brainy and Nia train together 
> 
> Spoilers: None! (but you might wanna see 4x13)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A note to those who want to give me prompts: Right now I'm just working on getting all of the chapters of this story from fanfiction.net to AO3. I will take and write your prompts, but they'll be posted on this story on fanfiction.net lonnnnng before they'll get here, just so ya know :)

Having the power of anticipatory dreams could honestly get annoying.

Currently, Nia was standing with her fists up in a defensive position, a blindfold over her eyes, matched against Brainy who was, unfairly, allowed to see. The blindfold was itchy. She wanted to sneeze. It was also slightly alarming to know that Brainy could attack her from any side without her knowing, because the ‘knowing’ part only happened when her dream powers worked.

Nia suddenly saw that Brainy was about to send a straight jab at her face. She dodged to the left and felt something whistle past her cheek. Another punch was coming. Nia caught at Brainy’s wrist, twisted it, passed it to her left hand, and then stepped in and tried for an elbow strike at Brainy’s neck. Her elbow whistled through air, and she got the mental image of him ducking and spinning away, breaking her hold of his wrist.

But now Nia’s brain was muddled. When had he done that maneuver? Was that a dream or had she just imagined him doing it? If that was a premonition she should-

Before she could figure out what had happened when, she felt two hands at her shoulders and was shoved back. As Nia fell, she realized she had dropped her hands in her confusion and lowered her defenses. 

Her butt hit the ice floor of the Fortress of Solitude and Nia let out a grunt of pain. She reached up and pulled off her blindfold, jaw tightening in frustration. “Was that _really_ necessary?” she asked Brainy, glaring.

“You need to focus,” Brainy replied, firmly but not unkindly. He walked over and held out a hand. Begrudgingly, Nia took it, and he helped her up.

“It would be easier if I could actually _see_ ,” Nia complained, rubbing her tailbone. She would definitely have a bruise there tomorrow. “I mean, come on. When am I ever going to have to fight when I can’t see?”

“That’s not the point,” Brainy said, taking a few steps away from her and placing his hands behind his back. “You will have an easier time depending on your anticipatory dreams if you cannot see what is going on in real time.”

“But-”

He reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. “Trust me on this, Nia Nal,” he said, and then removed his hand. “Let us try again.”

Sighing in frustration, Nia put the blindfold back over her eyes and held up her hands. She made the first move this time, feinting way to far to her left in the hopes that Brainy would think she had missed because she couldn’t see. It might not have been a tactic that would work in a real fighting situation, but he had given her this blindfold so she might as well use it to her advantage.

In her minds eye, she could picture Brainy glancing at the mislaid punch and opening up his mouth to scold. Using her opposite hand, Nia struck out blindly. She let out a squeak when her hand actually connected with something, and scrabbled to pull of her blindfold.

Brainy had his hands over his face, but there was already blood trickling out of his nose. Nia’s hands flew to her mouth. “Oh my gosh, Brainy!” she gasped. “I’m so sorry!”

“ ‘Sorry‘ doesn’t usually look like trying not to laugh,” Brainy huffed grumpily, prodding gently at his nose. 

“I’m not- I wasn’t-” Nia hurriedly tried to wipe the offending expression off her face. “Okay, in my defense you just made it so I won’t be able to sit comfortably for the next two weeks.”

Brainy made a face and lifted his sleeve up to try and staunch the blood. “Luckily,” he told her stiffly. “I was in the process of backing up. My nose is not broken.”

“Good,” Nia said, and meant it. “I really _am_ sorry.”

Her guilt increased when Brainy took his sleeve away, only for another dribble of blood to run out from his nose and over his lip. “Here, let me,” Nia murmured, pulling a tissue from her pocket and hurrying over to hold it up to his nose. 

His hand covered hers, taking over holding the tissue, and Nia awkwardly stepped back. “I... apologize,” Brainy said after a moment of just looking at her and not speaking.

“I’m the one that just punched you in the face,” Nia reminded him, laughing a little.

“Yes,” Brainy allowed, dipping his chin slightly. “But you already apologized. I.... shoved you rather unnecessarily earlier, and I did not say I was sorry for doing so. So I... am now.”

“Apology accepted,” Nia assured him, corner of her mouth lifting. “We’re training. It happens. And you’re right; I should have kept my focus. I guess I just always want to be the best at everything and so when I fail... well, I blame it on other people instead of myself. I blamed me not keeping my head in the game on you making me wear this stupid, itchy blindfold.”

Brainy watched her yank the offending article off of her head and throw it to the side with an affectionate expression on his face. “You will get there, Nia Nal,” he told her, wiping his nose one last time before sticking the blood-stained tissue into his pant’s pocket. “You have the potential to be the _greatest_ Superfriend that the world has ever seen.”

Nia tilted her head to the side, smiling. “Thanks, Brainy,” she said. 

After a moment of silence, Brainy glanced up at her again. “May I ask.... why you had a tissue in your pocket?”

Nia laughed. “It’s freezing here,” she shrugged. “It makes my nose run. Also... I’m pretty sure I’m allergic to that blindfold.”

Brainy shook his head, smiling. “I will retrieve a new blindfold for you, Nia Nal,” he told her. “One that is not itchy and that you have no allergic reaction to.” He checked his watch. “I believe that we have trained enough for today. I do not think my nose could take another... blow.”

Nia winced. “I really am sorry,” she repeated as they gathered up their things and headed for the exit. 

He reached over and patted her shoulder. “As you said. We were training.”


	10. Alleyway Proposal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Brainy pulls Nia into an alleyway, and changes her life forever.
> 
> Spoilers: Set post-season for, but only references their first meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why I bothered being cryptic in the summary when I used that title, but whatever XD

“I wish it would warm up,” Nia said as she and Brainy walked out of their favorite pizza place and into the street. Her left hand was wrapped in Brainy’s, where it had been for pretty much the entire ten months they had been dating, and she was holding a takeaway pizza box, too big to fit in her purse, in her right. “It’s almost June; I shouldn’t still have to wear a coat.”

Brainy murmured something unintelligible and Nia glanced over at him. He had been acting like this all through dinner; distracted, fidgety, and even a little distant. As she watched, he stuck his hand in his pocket, then went stiff. “Let us... switch sides,” he said, squinting slightly as he moved so she was on left instead of his right. 

Frowning slightly, Nia obeyed. If it had been almost a year earlier, she might have thought his odd behavior was coming from the place they had just exited. Most people would find it strange that a couples favorite pizza place was also one where the owner had almost beat one of them with a baseball bat. But Shabid’s Pizza Place was the spot that Nia and Brainy had met, and Brainy insisted on going there time and again, especially after the owner was arrested for illegal alien abuse. 

They were a couple of yards from the exit of the pizza place when Brainy abruptly stopped. Nia looked over at him. “You are acting _very_ weird tonight,” she said, letting out a bemused laugh. “Like, weirder than usual.”

“I am aware,” Brainy replied, and winced. “The reason I stopped was... well, I think that we should walk down this way tonight.”

“Brainy, the car is that way,” Nia reminded him, pointing down the street.

“Just.... trust me, please, Nia Nal,” Brainy told her, giving her an awkward smile.

Even though they had been dating for 10-months-almost-exactly, and had known each other for over a year, Brainy still occasionally called Nia by both her first and last name. He had never been one for pet names, but his certain way of addressing her had always felt like one to Nia. She liked it, even if she constantly reminded him during their first few months dating that he could just call her Nia.

Nia shrugged, and allowed Brainy to lead her into the alleyway. “Do you know,” Brainy spoke up again. “That this is my favorite place downtown?”

Nia frowned slightly and looked around. The alleyway wasn’t one of those dark, sketchy ones that you only walk down if you’re hoping to meet a guy with a knife, at least, but it was just sort of... plain. There was brick on both sides, and a bike rack along the right wall, and the flooring was large pieces of grey square stone. It wasn’t anything special.

“Why?” she asked, looking at him with a quizzical expression. 

Brainy gave her fingers a squeeze and then let go of it so he could lace his hands behind his back. He moved backward a few feet, so his head was right next to the ‘Shabid’s Pizza Place, Around Corner’ sign. Nia looked at him in slightly amused confusion. “Brainy, what’s up with you tonight?”

“I was standing right here when you told me to find you,” Brainy said softly, smiling at her in a nostalgic sort of way. “Which I did, the very next day.”

Nia smiled, feeling her heart twist at the memory. It felt both like so long ago and just yesterday that she and Brainy had had their first conversation. 

“You asked me if you knew me,” she remembered, laughing a little. “And then when I said I didn’t think so, you asked if you could get to know me. I thought you were just using a pick up line, but...”

“You reminded me of Nura,” Brainy finished, nodding. “But I couldn‘t put my finger on it until you gave me your name.”

Nia nodded, then asked: “Brainy.... why are we here?”

“I have... done some research on this of late,” Brainy said, rolling a little up on his toes before settling back down. “And I have learned that, if one wishes to do.... _this_ the right way, then one should find a spot that is meaningful to the couple. I believe that this spot is incredibly meaningful to us. Would you agree?”

Nia nodded again, still confused. “And... what, exactly, are you doing?”

Brainy took a deep breath, then moved his hands from behind his back and got down on one knee. Nia’s hands flew to her mouth and she let out a gasp of surprise. 

After fiddling for a moment, Brainy managed to open the black velvet box in his hand with trembling fingers. Nia took a few steps closer, away from the bike racks and towards him. There was a small, diamond ring nestled in the box, glittering in the dim light of the street lamp. Even with the bad lighting, it was beautiful. “Brainy,” she whispered, heart pounding. “Oh my gosh.”

“Nia Nal.” Brainy’s eyes stared into hers, full of adoration. “I knew, from the very moment that I met you, my life was going to be different. I did not know... how, exactly, but I knew that it would be different. I believe that I fell in love with you that afternoon when you stepped in front of me and faced a large man with a baseball bat and told him to back off.”

Nia let out a choked laugh, remembering. She hadn’t realized she could be so brave until she had seen a white haired, confused looking alien about to be subjected to a hate crime. “I think I fell in love with you when I heard you had ordered fifteen pizzas,” she joked, and Brainy laughed.

“I would... I would consider myself to be the luckiest man in the world if I got to spend every moment of every day with you,” he went on. “And by asking you this question, I hope I can do just that.”

Nia bit her lip, smile spreading uncontrollably across her face, and squeezed her hands together.

“Nia Nal,” Brainy said slowly. “Will you marry me?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Nia breathed, falling to her knees in front of him and taking her face in his hands. “Yes, yes, _yes_.”

She leaned down and kissed him and Brainy let out a watery laugh. “I love you,” he murmured when she pulled back. 

“I love you, too,” Nia whispered as Brainy took her left hand, getting the ring out of the box and sliding onto her fourth finger. “And I’m looking forward to being able to say and show you that for the rest of my life.”

He hugged her tightly, both of them still on their knees on the hard stone paving. Nia reached up and wiped her eyes. “That was a pretty darn good proposal speech,” she laughed as he helped her to her feet. 

“I am fairly certain what I rehearsed was a bit different but... I am not displeased with how it turned out,” Brainy admitted, taking her hand again and rubbing his thumb across her new wedding ring. 

“How long have you been planning all of this?” Nia asked, pressing her shoulder against his as they walked back to her car. 

“Would you laugh if I said approximately three months?” Brainy gave her a goofy smile. “I admit to enlisting Alex’s help in choosing the ring.”

“That’s nothing new,” Nia snickered. “Remembered on our one month anniversary when you were absolutely _convinced_ that you needed to get me a gift? And you ended up sending Alex to the store because you had absolutely no idea of how to shop for women.”

Brainy snorted. “I believe that I missed every other anniversary besides six months.”

“Thank goodness,” Nia laughed. “It’s not as if you have the largest salary in the world.”

“This wedding,” Brainy said, squeezing her hand. “Will be everything you dreamed of. I promise. I do not care if I have to borrow money from _J’onn J’onzz_. It will be incredible.”

“Hey.” Nia stopped and turned him so she was holding both of his hands in her hers. “I don’t care if we get married in a bare wooden church and I’m wearing a pair of jeans. Just as long as it’s with you, it will be the best day of my entire life.”

Brainy pressed his lips to hers again. “Alright,” he murmured. “But I think I would rather you _not_ wear jeans, for picture purposes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can we petition to have this happen in the show pleaseeeeee?!?!


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Brainy and Nia finally get married. Unfortunately, Brainy is so nervous that there are certain technical difficulties. Literally. 
> 
> Spoilers: I guess to chapter 10 of this story, but not really haha

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was somewhat inspired by Brainy and Nia's first kiss, when the lights in the hospital short circuited. 
> 
> It was only after writing this that I realized those lights had nothing to do with Brainy, but ah well XD

“You know, I’ve planned like, six weddings before but I never thought I’d have one,” Nia said suddenly. She was sitting in a chair in front of a mirror, Kara behind her. 

Kara frowned, taking the pins out of her mouth. “You’ve planned weddings before?”

“Yeah,” Nia laughed. “Not, like, as a job, but yeah. My town was super small but the entirety of my extended family lived there. With all the cousins it made for a lot of weddings, and since wedding planners are expensive and there was no one with that job in our town who might work cheaper, I decided to try my hand at it. I got pretty good at it, too.”

“Wedding planning would be fun,” Kara mused, putting the pins on the counter and reaching for the curling iron. She was working on Nia’s hair, pinning it and twisting it and curling it until Nia felt like there was something so intricate on the back of her head that she would feel guilty taking it out. 

“It was,” Nia agreed. “But yeah, I never thought I’d have my own wedding. I mean, I daydreamed about it of course, but.... no one seemed right.”

“Until Brainy,” Kara teased, nudging her.

A smile broke over Nia’s face. “Yeah,” she agreed happily, biting her lip and twisting her hands in her lap. “Until Brainy.”

There was a knock on the door, and Alex poked her head into the hotel room they were in. “Everyone decent?” she asked.

“You’re good,” Kara assured her. “I’m almost done with Nia’s hair, and then we can eat and head to the church.”

Alex came fully into the room, nodding. She was clothed in a different dress than Kara, because she was actually Brainy’s best man (woman?). Kara was Nia’s Maid of Honor, with Lena as a bridesmaid and then James and J’onn as groomsmen. Considering who was actually close to who, Brainy and Nia had considered putting Lena on Brainy’s side and James on Nia’s, but then it just got too confusing. Besides, it didn’t matter where they were standing, just as long as they were there.

“You look _beautiful_ ,” Alex told Nia, looking her over.

Nia beamed at her as Kara finished up on the last loose curl and turned off the curling iron. She _did_ look beautiful. And she felt like a princess in a floor length white wedding gown with lacy sleeves and an embroidered neckline. “Thanks, Alex,” she smiled. “How’s Brainy doing?”

“Uhhh...” Alex wrinkled her nose. “He’s.... nervous?”

Brainy was, actually, very nervous. So nervous, in fact, that he had managed to short out the power in his hotel room. James was currently standing on a chair, struggling with the lights. 

“I’m doing my best to get it under control,” Brainy muttered, pacing. “I should have known that my... unsettlement would have some negative ramifications.”

J’onn put his hand on Brainy’ shoulder. “Everything is going to be fine,” he told him kindly. “Why are you worried?”

“Because it is- it is _Nia Nal_ ,” Brainy replied, sitting heavily down on the hotel bed. “She deserves the entire world, and more. I want this day to be- to be perfect.”

“Hey.” James stepped down off his chair and leveled Brainy with a look. “I understand the urge to want everything to be just right for someone you love. But Brainy, Nia doesn’t care about things like flowers and clothing and decorations. She cares about you. I bet that, as long as you’re there, everything _will_ be perfect in her eyes.”

Brainy let out a deep sigh. “I hope you are right, James Olsen,” he said finally, nodding his head. “I believe that you are. Still. I am quite nervous.”

“Pre-wedding jitters are nothing to be ashamed of,” J’onn reassured him. “I’d just try to get your power-shorting urges under control.”

Brainy nodded again, more rapidly. “I will get right on that.”

About an hour later, Nia had managed to force down a few bites of breakfast and had joined Kara, Lena and Alex in heading to the church. She fidgeted in the back of the van, skirt rustling aggressively.

Lena finally put a hand on her knee. “Nia,” she said firmly, giving her a look. “Stop worrying. Nothing is going to go wrong today. And if it does, it’s just going to be with something stupid, like the minister getting there late or a seating mishap.”

Nia’s face fell and she opened her mouth to start fretting, but Lena cut her off. “When you get married to someone, the only two things that matter are _you_ , and who you’re getting married to. I can assure you, even if it’s just from text updates from James, that Brainy isn’t about to back out on you.”

“Okay,” Nia whispered. “I know. I know that. I don’t even have a right to be nervous. I literally had a Dream last night where I saw the future and Brainy and I were, um... well, it was obviously our wedding night and everything had gone well. And then when I woke up from that I feel back asleep and had _another_ Dream about the two of us being, like, old and celebrating our fiftieth anniversary and stuff.”

“Well that... bodes well?” Kara managed, trying not to laugh. 

“You sure those were _Dream_ dreams, and not just... dreams?” Alex asked, raising an eyebrow.

“They were definitely Dreams,” Nia said confidently. “So, I shouldn’t have anything to worry about.” She took a deep, steadily breath and folded her neatly manicured hands in her lap. “Everything is going to go just fine.”

It may have been Nia’s words that jinxed it, but things did not go exactly “just fine.” Everything was smooth at the beginning. The girls arrived and Alex went to stand with Brainy. Nia was reunited with her father and her sister, who both hugged her tightly and cried and then she started crying before Kara scolded her about ruining her makeup. But then _Kara_ started crying because her friend was so happy and it was up to Lena to get them all under control again.

The organist was two minutes late, but no one really noticed. She shoved her glasses up her nose, looking frazzled, and began to play the wedding march. Nia’s father took her arm, and they waited as Kara and Lena lead the way down the aisle.

Brainy and Nia didn’t know any kids, so the ring bearer and the flower girl were taken out of the wedding ceremony. It didn’t matter; Nia didn’t need any flowers to announce her entrance. The church went dead silent save for the rustle of dressy clothes as the small group of attendees got to their feet and Nia stepped into the room.

As soon as Brainy’s eyes landed on her, things started to go haywire. A couple tears were expected, especially from Brainy who was a pretty regular cryer. But his eyes didn’t just well up. The entire row of lights at the front of the church sparked and died. 

There were murmurs from the group and James snorted softly with laughter. He reached forward and patted Brainy’s shoulder as the married-man-to-be looked around him with dismay. “It’s just some lights, man,” he reassured him. “There’s plenty of sunlight.”

Nia was trying not to laugh, too, as she finally reached Brainy. “So you’re shorting out lights now, huh?” she whispered, taking his hands and rubbing the tops of them with her thumbs.

He winced, glancing above them. “I will... have to send the church a compensation bill.”

“Let’s worry about that later,” Nia said with a smile. 

The ceremony started, and everything was back to being perfect again. After vows were exchanged in which Brainy began to sniffle so violently that Maeve actually got up to bring him a tissue, the minister spoke a few finishing words.

“If anyone objects to the joining of this couple,” he said finally. “Speak now, or forever hold your piece.”

Everyone, thankfully, stayed silent, smiling up at the almost-newlyweds. And, also thankfully, no Nazis burst into the church. 

The minister nodded. “I pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride.”

Brainy flipped Nia’s veil back, leaned in, and kissed her. 

The rest of the lights, along with the piano, which was actually a high-quality electric keyboard, promptly died.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: After the bar scene in 5x04, Brainy and Nia go home.
> 
> Spoilers: 5x04. ...In case that wasn’t obvious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WE FINALLY REACHED MY SEASON 5 FANFICTIONSSSS!!
> 
> Man, I can't believe I'm saying this, but it's kind of a good thing Supergirl isn't restarting at the normal time. I wouldn't have NEARLY enough time transfer all of my season 5 set chapters of this story!

After a few too many drinks had been consumed and everyone had given James a goodbye hug, the Superfriends gang started to filter out of the bar. Nia found Brainy by the trashcan, slowly throwing all of the tissues stuffed in his various pockets away. He had made good use of them after James‘ impromptu speech, and again when saying goodbye to the taller man.

“Hey,” Nia said softly, walking over to stand by him and putting her hand on his arm. It was nice to just be with him again. Even though it had only been a few days since that moment in their apartment, it had seemed like years. She really had miss him.

“Hello, Nia,” Brainy replied, depositing the last tissue in the trash can. He looked her over and frowned a little. “I see that you have... rejected my floral offering?”

“Huh?” Nia shook her head, then turned and pointed. Her purse was resting unsupervised (perhaps unwisely so) on a table, the daisy leaning against it with it’s petals in the air so the flower head wasn't crushed. “It’s right over there.”

“Oh.” Brainy followed her finger with his gaze and then gave a quick nod. “Good. I am... glad to see that.”

“So, um...” Nia gave his arm a squeeze before awkwardly dropping her hand and clasping her fingers together in front of her. Brainy must have been rubbing off on her. “Should we... should we go home?”

Brainy looked up at her sharply before his gaze dropped. He began to fiddle absently with the almost-empty packet of tissues in his hands, and Nia felt doubt set in. She hurriedly backtracked. “I mean- I mean obviously if you don’t want to that’s _fine_ ,” she babbled. “I just thought that- it’s just been so _weird_ without you, I mean, it’s _our_ apartment, and I’ve been living in it all alone, and if you don’t want to move back in together I shouldn’t, like, automatically get to live there because you need a place to stay too and-”

“Nia,” Brainy said softly, and Nia’s flow of words abruptly stopped. His eyes were still red rimmed from the earlier “springing out” of his feelings, and it made him look heartbreakingly vulnerable. “I would.... _love_ to go home with you. I was not aware that you would want me there.”

Nia nodded shakily. “I would,” she told him. “I really would.”

“Alright then.” Brainy tucked his tissue packet into his pocket and reached carefully for her hand. “Can I-?”

Nia nodded, letting him wrap his fingers around hers. They walked out of the bar together, waving to Kara who was watching them from a corner booth with a smile on her face. 

When the two of them landed at their apartment (‘landed’, because Brainy decided that flying would be the most efficient way to get home), Nia unlocked the door and lead the way inside. She pulled her hair out of its ponytail and took off her brown sued jacket, bundling it up and tossing it haphazardly onto the bed as she walked by. Brainy took a seat and titled his head slightly, watching her until she turned around and gave her an uncomfortable smile. “What?”

“What?” Brainy repeated, blinking. “I didn’t say anything.” 

“Yeah, but you were just... looking at me,” Nia said, pushing her fingers through her hair. 

“You are..... beautiful,” Brainy murmured, tilting his head a little more. “And I... never realized how much _not_ seeing you made me ache to... see you.”

Nia smiled a little more naturally, walking over to the chair to press a kiss on his forehead. “Come on,” she murmured, rubbing his arm. “Come get ready for bed with me.”

Brainy smiled back at her and got to his feet, following her into their bedroom. It had been awhile since they had been able to peacefully get ready for the night together. For the last week, the comfortable silence had been filled with Brainy’s incessant poetry. Now, the quiet was soft and Nia felt her shoulders relax as she gathered up her pajamas and slipped into the bathroom to change.

Brainy was very modest. She liked that about him; it was refreshing. But it also meant that if she started to change in front of him, he would turn his back. He had told her before that it wasn’t for lack of _wanting_ to look, but it was his respect from her and females as a whole that kept him from ogling her. So, to ease his temptation, Nia had started changing in the bathroom with the door mostly closed. 

After she had gotten her pajamas on, Nia walked out of the bathroom to find Brainy shrugging one of his cotton t-shirts that he liked to sleep in. She leaned against the doorframe, it being her turn to just watch him. He looked over his shoulder, hair falling into his face and smiled at her. Nia smiled back, cheeks pinking a little at getting caught staring.

Nia turned to go back into the bathroom but Brainy stood up and took hold of her arm. “Thank you,” he said gently, reaching forward to brush a bit of hair out of her face.

“For what?” Nia asked, looking down bashfully and biting her lip to keep from smiling again. 

“For allowing me back into your life,” Brainy elaborated. “And not only that, but for... understanding. Sometimes it feels as though... you’re the _only_ one who truly understands me.”

Nia finally let herself smile, covering the hand that was still resting on her cheek. “I will _always_ let you back into my life,” she told Brainy, gently but firmly. “And no matter how much we have to work and how many times we want to give up.... I will always keep trying to have this with you.” She put her other hand on Brainy’s, over his heart. She could feel it beat under her fingertips. “I love what we have, Brainy, crazy lives and all.”

Brainy stepped forward and she could see his Adam’s apple bob as he pressed his forehead to hers. “As do I, Nia Nal,” he murmured, tilting his chin just right so he could brush their lips together. 

And, honestly? After over a week of _too much_... that was all Nia needed him to say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh right... this story is one of the bajillion that I wrote when I thought Brainy and Nia shared an apartment because HALF OF THEIR SCENES were in an apartment together. 
> 
> Oooooops :P


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Strip poker is fun.... until it isn’t anymore.  
> Spoilers: Slight references to the end of Season 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I went through this phase awhile back where I was just craving some, like... slightly more mature Brainia? Like don't get me wrong I'm obsessed with their sweet chaste romance and fluffiness (when they're not, you know, breaking each others hearts), but bro I just wanted something INTENSE and a lil bit STEAMY if yknow what I mean.
> 
> So I wrote it and... here is what we got.

Why did Alex always think of the game night ideas that ended badly?

She was always the one who suggested drinking penalties. She was always the one who thought of ridiculously dangerous dares that made them all glad they had Supergirl standing by. And now she was the one who came up with strip poker.

But (because of those aforementioned drinking penalties that lead to everyone besides Brainy and Kara being a little buzzed) the rest of the group had been the one to agree. So now they were all sitting in a circle with their cards and barely restrained laughter, getting ready to play.

It was a slightly smaller group than usual, which would up the rate of stripping. J’onn had been called away to one of his alien-support-group meetings (which was probably good, because he never would have approved of strip-poker), and Kelly had been tied up at work with a client (much to Alex’s disappointment). That left Kara, Alex, Brainy, Nia, James and Lena to face off with each other.

Kara lost the first round. Giggling uncontrollably, more out of slight discomfort than intoxication, she pulled off her sweatshirt and draped it over the arm of her chair. James lost next, and took off his socks. “Lame!” Alex crowed, shaking her head at him and laughing. She and Lena, predictably, were the most drunk out of all of them. 

Nia lost next. She was thankfully wearing a sweater over her dress, and so she took that off. If she lost again, she was going to have to lose her dress, which would be both awkward and cold. 

Brainy lost the fourth round. He followed James‘ example and took off his socks. 

A few rounds later saw Alex with her shirt off, Kara wearing leggings without the skirt, and Lena still fully clothed. James lost again, and pulled off his shirt. Lena let out a wolf whistle and then laughed when James sent her a surprised glance. “Sorry, sorry,” she muttered, reaching for her wine glass again. “Can’t help it if I think you’re hot.”

James coughed and crossed his arms self-consciously over his chest, cheeks darkening. Kara raised her eyebrows at Nia, who smothered a giggle with her palm.

Brainy lost again, and Alex nudged him in the ribs when he made no move to strip anything off. “Shirt or pants,” she said, smirking. “Your choice.”

Brainy, who had been laughing along with everyone else so far, sobered up a little. It was true that he didn’t have a choice: he had taken off his socks and his jacket and was left with just pants and a top. Slowly, he reached for the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head.

The sight was enough to make anyone sober. Nia let out a faint gasp, her hand flying back to her mouth where it had been moments before when she was laughing.

She wasn’t laughing now. It wasn’t so much that Brainy was a little skinnier than your typical superhero, something that everyone could see even with a shirt on. No, what had shocked the group so much was the sheer amount of scarring on Brainy’s chest. 

“Oh my gosh,” Nia breathed. She came to the sudden, startling conclusion that she had never actually seen her boyfriend shirtless before: not at home, not working out, not at the beach. They had never gotten past a few chaste kisses, either, which meant that she hadn’t even seen him shirtless during certain.... activities. 

Brainy’s shoulders seemed to curl in on himself. He stood up and turning around to reveal even worse scarring along his back, then grabbed his shirt and tried to pull it over his head again. In his haste, he got stuck part way through and struggled for a second before finally yanking so hard that the top button on the shirt popped open. Then he strode out of Kara’s apartment without another word.

The remaining group looked at each other in shock. “I wasn’t the only one who saw that, right?” Lena breathed, staring at the spot where Brainy had just been. “He had scars _all over_.. right?”

“Yeah.” Kara’s eyes were wide. “You weren’t the only one who saw those.”

“I’m going after him,” Nia murmured, grabbing her sweater and her purse and jolting to her feet. “God- _I’ve_ never even seen him with his shirt off. I can’t-” She pushed her hand through her hair, her voice choking off suddenly. “I can’t even imagine what he must have been through to- to get all of those.”

Kara squeezed her hand as she hurried past. “Give him a hug for me, okay?” she asked, eyebrows scrunched in concern.

Nia nodded, and then she was out the door. Brainy wasn’t in the hallway, and she didn’t see him as she raced down the staircase, nor was he visible on the street. Unsure of what to do, Nia pulled out her phone and texted him.

_Brainy where are you?_

_I’m so sorry about what happened_

_Are you okay?_

She wasn’t really expecting a response, but it didn’t hurt to try. 

Wishing that she had super speed, Nia set off at a run towards her and Brainy’s apartment. As her breathing became more labored, she could help kicking herself for not realizing what Brainy was hiding. She had just put it off as him being modest. She should have known that it was actually due to something bad.

Nia crossed her fingers as she arrived at the apartment, fumbling with the keys with the other hand. The door opened softly, and Nia let out a breath of relief when she saw Brainy sitting on the couch, his hands clasped together and his gaze staring blankly at the wall in front of him.

“Oh, honey,” Nia whispered, walking into the room. Brainy wasn’t much for pet names, but in that moment she just couldn’t help herself.

Brainy looked up, his face rigidly neutral. “Ah, Nia. You’re home. I was just about to prepare myself for bed.”

“Brainy...” Nia murmured, sitting down beside him on the couch. “Can you please not act like something didn’t just happen?”

“That’s a double negative,” Brainy mumbled, but the stoic expression on his face crumbled. “The looks of _horror_ on your faces, Nia...”

Nia felt crushed. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “We were just surprised. We weren’t.... judging you in any way. We never would, emotionally or physically, about _anything_. Okay?”

Brainy tilted his head slightly, squeezing his hands together in his lap. “It wasn’t so much that I thought that you were judging me.... More that I have managed to keep my scars a secret from _all_ of you up until now. None of them were caused by the Superfriends and so I- I felt no need to.... burden you with the pain of my past.”

“Brainy...” Nia put her hands firmly on top of his, heart clenching as he flinched a little. “You could never be a burden to any of us- to _me. Never_ , okay? I don’t want to be there for just the smiles and the sweet comments and the easy conversations. I want to be there for the hard times, and the tears, and... and the scars.” 

Brainy shuddered, and Nia stood up. He looked up at her with an expression tainted with hurt. But instead of leaving him like he clearly thought she was going to (which Nia didn’t really understand because she would _never_ leave him when he was like this), Nia reached for his hands again and tugged him up with her.

“Come on,” she told him gently, no room for argument in her voice as she led him to their bedroom. When they got inside, Nia turned off the overhead lights and clapped on the lamp, making the light cozy and warm. 

Brainy sat down on the bed, and Nia stepped towards him. She reached for the first unbroken button on his shirt, and Brainy’s hands flew up to cover her own. “What are you doing?” he whispered, eyes wide and reflecting in the lamplight.

“I want you to take this off,” Nia told him steadily, staring into his eyes as she undid the button. “Because I want you to spend the rest of tonight ‘burdening me’ with all of your scars and all of their stories. Okay?”

Brainy nodded, swallowing thickly, and Nia moved on to the next bottom. Her fingers were shaking. She had never been this intimate with Brainy. _Never_. Part of her wished that it was under different circumstances, but the other part of her knew that this was perfect; this was what he needed. 

After three more buttons, the shirt fell open. Even with just an inch and a half of Brainy’s chest showing, Nia could see a thin scar creeping across his stomach. She moved to push the shirt off of Brainy’s shoulders but his hands caught hers again, pressed them into his chest. “Nia,” he whispered, gazing at her. “Are you sure you’re ready for all of this?”

Nia moved the shirt slowly back, heedless of his fingers trying to stop her. “I’m sure,” she murmured certainly. “Please trust me, Brainy. You’re not going to scare me away.”

Brainy nodded, letting out a slow breath. Then he dropped his hands, allowing Nia to take his shirt off the rest of the way. Nia’s breath stuttered a little as she lightly traced a scar that started at the side of his fourth rib and trailed all the way to his solar plexus. “Tell me about this one,” she whispered, unable to speak any louder.

Brainy looked down at the scar, chest raising with his breath. “I was seventeen years old,” he murmured. “I had just joined the Legion and was on my first mission, but I was cocky. I believed that I was unstoppable. The man we were dealing with had been a trained knife-thrower before he went insane and decided to become a serial killer instead. I rushed out into the field, ignored the plan, and one of his knives caught me all along my stomach.” Brainy sighed a little. “I was so high off of adrenaline that I didn’t realized I had a gigantic wound in my stomach until I arrived home. And then I was too proud to ask for help.”

“You stitched it up yourself?” Nia breathed, eyes filling with sympathetic horror.

Brainy nodded. “And, as you can see, I did not to a very good job.”

“What about this one?” Nia murmured, hand roving a little farther south, where a knotted scar rested right next to Brainy’s belly button. 

“9 millimeter bullet,” Brainy replied. “Another Legion job. Our adversary shot at Nura and for whatever reason her dream powers didn’t warn her. My differential calculous, on the other hand, did.”

“So you took the bullet for her,” Nia finished. She shook her head slowly. “I feel like this scar should be something you’re proud of, then. It’s the mark of a hero, not a mark of shame.”

“I suppose that you are right,” Brainy agreed hesitatingly, looking down towards the scar. “And I’m not just saying that because you are the girlfriend.”

Nia smiled faintly, her hand drifting to the right. “And this one?”

“You should know this one,” Brainy told her with a smile. “Appendicitis is quite common on your Earth. My appendix burst when I was a teenager, and I had to be operated on.”

Nia frowned. “Wait, you had an appendix? Even though you’re techno-organic?”

“That is a conversation for another time,” Brainy told her with another small smile. 

Nia’s eyes found the last visible scar on Brainy’s front. It was the one that had caused everyone’s looks of shock back at Kara’s apartment, a mottled patch of burned flesh spanning about half a foot from his chest to his left shoulder. She tentatively traced it with her fingers, part of her wondering if it still hurt. Goosebumps rose on Brainy’s arms, but he showed no signs of pain, so Nia felt it was safe to keep touching him.

“What’s this one?” she asked. “It looks like burns.”

“It is,” Brainy said. “After I left the Brainiac clan, I was... confused. I fell in with a gang, but, in my defense, I had just come out of a family of world-killers! The gang seemed like heroes compared to them.”

“I’m not going to judge you,” Nia reminded him gently, thumb rubbing his collarbone.

He nodded. “The gang that I joined had a sort of ‘baptism-by-fire’. And I mean that quite literally. To test my loyalty, I had to set fire to a rival-gangs warehouse which was holding their guns.... after my gang had stolen the guns, of course. But the thing was, the warehouse didn’t just hold guns. It held gunpowder, too.”

Nia’s gaze shot up to his, eyes wide. He nodded. “Indeed. The gunpowder exploded, and the building collapsed. I most likely would have died, except I am techno-organic and have the ability to filter smoke from the air as I inhale it. I made it out of the warehouse, but just as I was stepping outside a beam came down. The part that landed on my chest was on fire.” He swallowed, looking down at the scarring. “I suppose that I owe that gang my life, though they put me into the situation in the first place. They dragged me out from the beam and loaded me into the car. Obviously, we could not go to the hospital because burn marks after an arson is incredibly incriminating. So I dealt with it myself... apparently not very well, considering, well... _that_.”

Nia’s gaze returned to the scars, and Brainy gently covered her hands with his, drawing them away from his chest. “Are you satisfied, now?” 

But Nia shook her head. She crawled onto the bed beside him, coming to rest with her knees just barely brushing his back. Her hands skated across the obscene amount of thin, tattered scars on his skin and she saw his entire back shudder under her touch. “Tell me about these ones.”

Brainy stood up, grabbing for his shirt. “You don’t want to know about those ones,” he muttered as he tried to shrug his clothes back on.

Nia grabbed at his arm and pulled him back onto the bed. “Stop it,” she told him gently. “Stop assuming things. I _do_ want to know, Brainy. Tell me. Please.”

He sagged and gave in. “I have told you before that... the Brainiac clan wasn’t a group of very good beings. My mother and father had a deep understanding of operant conditioning, which is a type of learning. They knew that reinforcement lasts longer than punishment... but they also knew that _extreme_ punishment lasts longer than both of those. So when I would do something that they... didn’t like, they would...” His voice wavered a little, and he squeezed his shirt tight between his hands. “They would whip me. Excessively. It was... effective. But it is also one of the many reasons why I denied my ancestors and ran away.”

Nia sat back, her body numb with horror. Having scars all over your back was one thing. But to have them come from your _parents_?

Brainy mistook her silence and got to his feet. “I told you,” he said stonily. “I knew that that information would be too much. I should not have-”

“No, no,” Nia grabbed for his arm again. “Brainy, wait. I was just- I was just shocked, that’s all. How could I judge you for something you didn’t even do? Of course I’m- I’m _horrified_ , but that doesn’t mean I didn’t want to know.”

She was rambling, she knew that, but she needed Brainy not to leave. She gave his arm a gentle tug and he sat back down again, lifting his legs onto the bed so he could face her. She tipped his chin, making sure he was looking right into her eyes. “I think your scars are beautiful,” she whispered.

“Beautiful?” Brainy repeated, breaking away from her fingertips and looking down. “Nia- they are _disgusting_. They are a reminder of every painful moment in my life that brought me to my knees and made me weak.”

“No,” Nia countered. “They are a reminder of every time that you got up off your knees and survived. They are a reminder of things that have made you _strong_. They’re beautiful.”

He was still shaking his head, so Nia leaned down and carefully brushed her lips against the knife scarring on Brainy’s side. He inhaled sharply. “I love this one,” Nia whispered, before moving a little bit and kissing the scar right next to his belly button. “And I love this one.” She leaned back up and pressed her mouth onto his chest. “And this one.” Then she shifted around to his back and kissed him there, too. “And I hate why you got these and who you got them from, but I love them, too. I love all of them.”

“There is one more,” Brainy blurted suddenly. “If you would like to see it.”

Nia nodded, and Brainy slowly reached behind himself and parted his hair. Nia helped him to uncover the spot, and saw that, engraved in the back of his skull, there was a thin, straight scar about one and a half inches long. “What’s this from?” Nia whispered, tracing the scar and feeling his silky hair slide over her fingertips. 

“Approximately one year, three months, and twelve days after I joined the Legion-”

“Approximately?” Nia cut in, smiling. 

“Yes,” Brainy replied seriously. “I did not take into account hours..... and you were teasing me.”

“Mhm,” Nia said, shaking her head a little. “Sorry; I shouldn’t have interrupted. Go on.”

“Anyway,” Brainy replied. “ _Approximately_ one year, three months, and twelve days after I joined the Legion, I had a breakage, rather like I did when I left you at the camp. I connected to my ancestors and went on a rampage, and somehow, one of the Legion’s adversaries found out. She kidnapped me, thinking that she could somehow join me with my ancestors and get me to work for her. She thought that if she cut into my brain, she could perform surgery that would get me to merge. Thankfully, I woke up before she could go farther than making the first incision into my skull.”

“Whoa whoa whoa,” Nia cut in again. “You woke up during your _own brain surgery_?”

“I did,” Brainy agreed, a faint smile in his voice at her incredulity. “The anesthetic she had given me wore off very quickly due to my elevated level of biology. I was able to surprise her enough to get the upper hand, and I escaped. Ten minutes later, the Legion found with their tracker, unconscious on the sidewalk.”

Nia shuddered, her hand slowly smoothing down Brainy’s hair to recover the scar. Brainy looked over his shoulder at her. “That is all of them,” he said after a moment, eyes skating over her face. 

“I... I have a scar, too,” Nia said hesitantly. She reached down and pushed up the leg of her jeans, and Brainy laid his hand on the small strip of scar that crossed her shinbone. “It was a few weeks after I transitioned, and I hadn’t really gone out much because I was scared off how people would- would treat me, but then Maeve wanted to go for a bike ride and so I agreed to leave the house. We had made it downtown, and these boys from the rougher side of Pathos starting harassing me and telling me to ‘man up‘ and stupid stuff like that.”

Brainy’s fingers tightened a little, making small indents into her leg. She could see his back muscles going tight and raised her hand, smoothing it down his skin. 

“One of them knocked me off my bike, and my leg somehow got caught with the chain. It cut really deep. They probably would have done worse, but one of the store owners along the street we were on came out and started threatening to call the cops. I was fine... but then my sister started hugging me and I started, like, sobbing. It was kind of embarrassing.”

“You should never be embarrassed to cry,” Brainy told her gently, the pressure of his fingertips releasing a little now that the story was done.

“You are,” Nia countered. “But anyway.” She settled more comfortably on to the bed, hands ghosting over Brainy‘s shoulders. “Thank you. For showing me your scars, I mean. And for letting me show you mine.”

Brainy nodded. “Thank you for listening,” he murmured. He paused for a moment, glancing away and then back again. “Nia, I- I would like if we did this more often.”

Nia’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Did... what again? Talked about your scars?”

“No, no.” Brainy shook his head, cheeks darkening a little bit. “I mean... you, uh...” He gestured to her hands, which were still lightly resting on his chest, and then cleared his throat. 

“Touching you?” Nia supplied with an awkward giggle. 

“Yes,” Brainy breathed. He scooted forward a little, tilting his chin just slightly. Nia swallowed, eyes flicking down to his lips. “I know that I have... avoided that, up until now. But I would like to. If you would.... also like to.”

“I would,” Nia murmured, not one hundred percent sure what they were even talking about anymore. She could feel Brainy’s breath on her lips, and her limbs buzzed with anticipation. “Brainy?”

“Mhm?” 

“Are you going to kiss me or are you just going to stay like that?”

Brainy swallowed, inching a little farther forward. “I would... like to kiss you.”

“Okay.”

A pause. Brainy’s breath shuddered. Nia licked her lips, waiting. 

Brainy leaned just a little bit closer, and their noses bumped. He inhaled sharply, and suddenly pulled back. Nia felt like someone had just yanked the bottom of her stomach out of her body. “What is it?” she whispered, trying not to let her disappointment transition into hurt. 

Brainy put his head in his hands, scrubbing his fingers through his hair. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “I just- I want to do this right and I’m... not sure how. You are- you are so good with me, all the time and I-” He gulped. “You deserve everything amazing. And I’m just not sure how-”

Nia put her hand on his cheek, turned his head, and then planted her lips on his. Her eyes flickered shut and she slipped her fingers into his silky soft hair, nails lightly scratching into his scalp. Brainy’s hands fell to her waist and he gently pushed her forward until her back hit the bed. Nia broke away from his mouth, giggling. “There,” she told him as she caught her breath a little, hair splayed across the quilt under her head. “That’s how you do it.”

“When you are learning something,” Brainy said, smirking a little as he positioned himself over her, resting his weight on his forearms. “The only way to achieve perfection is through practice.”

Nia grinned. “Smooth,” she told him, impressed. “I like the sound of that.”

Brainy smiled and carefully rested more of his weight on her, his hands framing her head as he lowered his mouth down. Nia tilted her chin up and caught his lips again, opening her mouth a little and licking at his lips. A soft, almost imperceptible groan lurched its way from Brainy’s throat and Nia felt heat bloom in her chest.

She pushed herself up a little, still mostly focused on kissing him and trying to get him to groan like that again, and turned them over so she was on top. Brainy scooted up the mattress, wrapping his hand around Nia’s thigh to pull her with him. They settled back with their heads cushioned by the pillows, the heat of their kiss dimming down to something slow and soft and gentle.

After awhile, Brainy pulled back and kissed the tip of Nia’s nose, then her upper lip, then her chin, her forehead, and both of her cheeks. Nia smiled, and so he kissed her dimples and the corners of her eyes, too. “I love you,” Brainy whispered, brushing his hand across her hair and tucking it behind her ear.

“I love you, too,” Nia replied softly. Her eyes were beginning to get heavy. It had to be close to one in the morning by now, and the game night that started all of this felt like weeks ago. She shifted a little, drawing her legs up so she could slide them under the covers without moving too much.

“You’re still dressed,” Brainy murmured, rubbing his hand down her arm and over the sleeve of her jacket. 

Nia shrugged a little, eyelids drooping. “I’m tired.”

Brainy smiled and pushed himself up a little, reaching to her shoulders to pull at her jacket gently. Nia inhaled sharply and her eyes fell shut as she felt him draw the jacket away from her back and help her out of it, then slowly unzip her dress so she could remove that, too. Brainy got out of his pants and then snuggled under the covers next to Nia. She turned around and he moved in closer, putting his arm around her waist.

“This is nice,” Brainy murmured as Nia’s bare leg threaded through his.

“Mmm...” Nia mumbled sleepily, feeling her hair tickle her nose but too lazy to brush it aside. 

“I’ll be quiet now,” Brainy promised, lowering his voice even more. He pressed his lips to the back of her neck and rubbed his nose into her skin a little before settling down again. 

A smile flitted across Nia’s face. When she had seen Brainy run out of Kara’s apartment earlier that evening, she hadn’t expected anything good. 

But maybe, even though he refused to believe that they were a sign of strength, Brainy’s scars were good for something after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHO ELSE JUST DIES WHEN PEOPLE KISS THEIR LOVED ONES SCARS LIKE UGH. UGH. MY HEART.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic was written off a prompt, which makes me think to tell y'all: Feel free to prompt me! That being said, it'll be a long time before the chapter written off your prompt actually ends up on this version of The Brainiac and The Dreamer (because I'm still catching up with posting). 
> 
> So, if you prompt me and I write the chapter, I'll make sure to send you a link of the finished chapter as soon as it's up on fanfiction.net :)

“Bah. Halloween is not _scary_. All of the costumes and ‘horrors’ can be understood with simple logic. It is much like a magic trick.”

Kara rolled her eyes at Brainy’s dismissive tone. “Remind me not to go see a magic show with you,” she grumbled. “Well, all of us are going on the Shrieky Creepy Ride anyway, and you aren’t allowed to spoil it. I want to have my socks scared off.”

“I don’t like horror stuff,” Nia complained, wrapping her arms around herself. “Don’t we deal with enough creep everyday when you look at all the shifty characters we have to apprehend?”

“She’s got a point,” Alex agreed, smirking a little. “But I’m with Kara- I want my socks scared off.”

“You’re always with Kara,” Kelly laughed, but not unkindly. “Anyway, I’m down. You in, James?”

“A little jump-scare never hurt anyone,” James grinned. “Shall we get in line?”

Nia pouted but moved along with her flock of friends, falling in besides Brainy. “I do not understand what the big deal is,” he said, continuing to grumble. “You sit in a small cart and move through a multitude of flashing lights and bored, underpaid actors in inexpensive costumes. I could recreate this in a DEO hallway with LED lights, four agents, and twenty minutes.”

Nia snorted. “Well, not everyone is as talented as you,” she teased, giving his ribs a nudge with her elbow. “Besides, I don’t care if it’s fake. In fact, I’ll _prefer_ it if it’s fake. I really don’t like getting scared.”

Brainy puffed himself up like a peacock, raising his chin importantly. “Never fear, Nia Nal. I will protect you from the flashing lights and underpaid actors.”

Nia laughed outright and smiled over at him. “Thank you. How kind.”

“Are you guys coming?” Kara asked, looking over her shoulder. Nia realized that she and Brainy had fallen behind and she hurried to catch up with their friends. 

They loaded into the carts, Alex and Kara in the front, James and Kelly behind them, and Nia and Brainy taking up the back. The ride jerked a little as it started up and they were almost immediately thrust into a darkly lit tunnel. Brightness flashed around them like lightning, and suddenly there was a witch looming over Nia. She squealed and grabbed on to Brainy’s arm without thinking. 

He looked over at her in surprise, and then leaned over to speak into her ear. “Fairly certain I saw that hat in Party City’s costume department last week.”

Nia’s heart rate started to slow down as she laughed. “What were you doing in Party City’s costume department last week?”

Ahead of them, they heard Kara squeak with surprise as the lights flashed again to reveal a remarkably large zombie stumbling towards them out of the shadows. Nia squeezed her hands tightly together and pinched her eyes so they were just a crack open. She didn’t want to miss anything, but she didn’t really want to see, either.

The ride continued on, the group letting out various good-natured sounds of fear as more monsters popped out at them. 

And then, there came the sound of hissing. Nia felt Brainy’s entire body go stiff and she glanced over, bemused. “I thought you said this wasn’t scary?”

“It’s snakes,” Alex called back, laughing. “Brainy’s one fear is snakes.”

“It wasn’t- it might not be,” Brainy gulped, looking around them frantically. “Where are they? W-w-where are the s-s-s-snakes?”

More light flashed, and Nia saw that his face had gone deathly pale. “Brainy...?” she asked cautiously, no longer laughing.

Kelly had turned around in her seat and was watching him with concern. “Brainy, listen to me. None of the things in here are real, remember?”

Brainy wasn’t listening. His eyes were locked on one of the walls. Nia followed his gaze and even she, though she was pretty impartial to snakes, couldn’t help but shudder.

Because there were _hundreds_ of snakes. They were pouring out of a nest in the corner between the wall and the ceiling, writing across both surfaces with increasingly loud hissing noises. And they were incredibly realistic, each of them seeming to have eyes and their own organic movements.

Brainy’s breath, which had frozen in his chest, now began to come in quick, sharp pants. Nia put her hand on his arm and he jerked away so violently she thought he might fall out of the cart. Nia quickly pulled away again, glancing up at Kelly. _This_ , what she was feeling right now, was real fear. Fear that a ride could never cause her.

“Brainy,” Kelly said again, more firmly this time. “I need you to focus on your breath.”

Brainy lifted his head, eyes wild, still curled a little to the side.

“He’s having a panic attack,” Alex said. “We gotta get him out of here.”

“Out of- out of-” Brainy repeated numbly, before he began scrabbling at his seatbelt, trying to get it off.

“Whoa whoa whoa!” Nia cried, trying to stop his hands with her own. The last thing they needed was Brainy throwing himself out of the cart and fumbling around in the recesses of the dark ride. “Slow down.”

“Get out,” Brainy mumbled. “I need to get out!” 

He drew in another breath, short and tight, and then started coughing uncontrollably. His fingers drove into his hair, twisting into the strands and pulling. Nia felt tears well up in her eyes as she watched him struggle, useless to do anything.

And then she had an idea. It was crazy, could possibly lead to extreme embarrassment, and may not even work. But she knew that a tactic to help someone through a panic attack was distraction. And nothing could be more distracting than....

Nia grabbed Brainy’s face in her hands and kissed him.

At first, he was completely stiff. Kissing him was like trying to kiss a grooved wall. The first sign that her plan was working came when Brainy’s hands slowly fell from his hair and drifted towards her face, his touch feather-light and her cheeks. Nia ran her hands to his shoulders, feeling them drop down away from his ears as his entire body relaxed against her.

She kept kissing him until she felt she might pass out if she didn’t breathe, partially to make sure he was fully distracted and partially because kissing Brainy felt _really_ nice. Then Nia eased away, running her hands down Brainy’s arms as she moved back.

Brainy’s breath was shaky, but regulated again. He stared at her with wide eyes, and Nia suddenly remembered her friends. She turned red and spun to face them. Alex was smothering her laughter behind her hands. Kara looked elated. James was smirking and Kelly just seemed impressed. 

“Well,” Kelly said finally. A ghost floated across their path, but nobody paid much attention. “I would say that you’d discovered a good tactic for helping someone down from a panic attack, but I don’t think my clients would take kindly to me kissing them when they got stressed out.”

The tension was broken as everyone started to laugh. Brainy let out a long breath and leaned his head back. “I... apologize. Profusely,” he said after a moment. “I did not mean to let my fear get the better of me. I just really.... do not like snakes.”

“Those were pretty scary snakes,” Nia told him. “Besides, we all get freaked out sometimes. Maybe a zombie or a witch or strobe lights on spiders doesn’t scare you, but you’re allowed to be afraid of _something_.”

Brainy tipped his chin, still looking embarrassed.

“Hey.” James sent Brainy a teasing smile. “If anything, you should be thanking the snakes. That was a pretty good kiss you just got there.”

Alex and Kara started to laugh as Nia and Brainy suddenly became very flustered. Nia was glad when the ride finally came to an end, and they could get out and forget all of this every happened.

Well... maybe not _all_ of it.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Deleted/alternate scene from Nia’s Valentines Day Party... Brainy really only went to the party to see Nia, but Yvette and his own nerves are making things challenging. Still, he is nothing if not determined. 
> 
> Spoilers: 4x12... kinda. I’d recommend watching it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dang it we just made it to Season 5 and now I'm going backwards to Season 4. In my defense, when I wrote this fanfiction it was during the stretch of time where Nia wasn't in the show for, like, 8 episodes on end, so I ended up rewatching the Brainia scenes in season 4 to get inspired.
> 
> GUYS DID YOU HEAR THAT SEASON 6 IS GOING TO BE THE LAST SEASON?! I am _beyond_ crushed; I don't even know what to do with myself :((((((

Brainy was standing out front of Nia’s door, seconds from knocking, and he still hadn’t scrounged up an idea for a Valentine’s Gift. It wasn’t as if it mattered; he was here now, and he wasn’t going to go running off to the nearest store to buy something. But his mind was one that, once it was given a problem, could not stop working no matter what Brainy tried. 

Should he have gotten something romantic, like an item of jewelry or flowers? Or should he have gone the more neutral route, like wine or chocolate? Nia liked wine, he was pretty sure, and she _loved chocolate_. 

But, again. There was no point in even coming up with these ideas because his fist was lowering and-

The door flew open and smashed into Brainy’s face. He staggered backward, clutching at his nose which, thankfully, wasn’t broken. A big-boned black woman with two buns on top of her head was standing on the other side of the door, smirking widely. “That’s what you get for standing outside like a creeper for five minutes!” she crowed.

“I was- it wasn’t-” Brainy spluttered, trying to get his thoughts in order and access his mental clock. “It was only _four_ minutes.”

The woman snorted. “You must be the Brainy guy Nia’s always blushing about. I’m Yvette.”

“Hello...” Brainy replied slowly, accepting the hand she had offered even as his mind was spinning around the fact that Nia blushed about him. Was that a good sign? He was terrible at this.

“Come on in,” Yvette offered, opening the door wider and all but dragging him inside. The decorations that Brainy had knocked off of Nia’s kitchen table earlier that day were all hung by now, and Brainy’s senses were bombarded by a rush of red and pink on the ceiling and people just about everywhere else.

“Not sure where Nia is,” Yvette was saying as she shut the door behind him. “Maybe you can get her less mopey, though. She’s been pretty down in the dumps since her mom kicked the bucket.”

Brainy’s head shot up, face creasing with anger. “Nia is not-” he tried, but Yvette was already walking away. “Mopey,” he finished with a sigh. “She’s grieving.”

“Hey, new guy!” a woman from behind Brainy called. Brainy suddenly realized that, as far as he could see, he was the only male in the apartment. “Never seen you before!”

The woman who was speaking was tall and had her hair up in long blond ponytail. “I have never seen you before, either,” Brainy responded cautiously. “I have never seen anyone here before.”

The woman snorted. “Well, I’m Andi and this is Viv and Lauren.” She nodded behind her, to two other leggy women who were lounging around the kitchen counter with drinks in their hands. “If you don’t know anyone, why are you here?”

“I know Nia Nal,” Brainy said stiffly. “We are.... friends from work.”

“You work at CatCo?” Viv spoke up, raising her eyebrow. “Ya don’t look like a journalist to me.”

“I’m... not,” Brainy evaded. “Uh.. where is Nia, by the way?”

The three women shrugged. “Haven’t seen her,” Lauren answered. “Which is kinda dumb because it’s _her_ party.”

“Well, in reality its a party that Yvette put on to cheer her up,” Brainy said, feeling the need to defend Nia from all these callous people. “And how do you know her?”

“Nia and Viv were roommates in college and she hung out with us a bunch,” Andi supplied. “We’re not, like, _super_ tight, but we stayed in touch so Yvette invited us.” She glanced back at Viv and Lauren. “Seriously, if she doesn’t show in like five minutes I’m going to look for her. Or leave.”

Brainy felt another defense for Nia springing into his mouth but before he could speak Yvette spun the volume dial on the music. “This is my jam!” she cheered, running over and grabbing Brainy’s arm. “Come dance with me, Nerdy!”

“It’s _Brainy_ ,” he corrected, but his voice was lost in the intense base beat now thumping from the speakers. 

Brainy lasted through the song as Yvette jumped around like a mating ape and tried to get him to dance. He thought that he would be released once the music had finished, but the next song that came on happened to be Yvette’s “jam” as well. And the next. And the next.

By now, Brainy had a splitting headache. He wanted _out_ , and he hadn’t even seen Nia. Managing to break away from Yvette, he darted from the throng of dancing bodies. A second too late, Brainy realized he had gone the wrong way. He was now in the section of the building leading to the bedrooms. 

“Come back, Nerdy!” Yvette called from the living room, and Brainy’s eyes went wide before he dove into the nearest empty room. 

The so-called “empty room” turned out to be a closet. 

And the closet turned out to be not so empty after all.

“Nia!” Brainy cried in surprise, before a hand clapped over his mouth. 

“Shhhhhh....” Nia hissed. “Do you want them all to know we’re in here?”

“No...” Brainy said slowly as her hand loosened a little. “I would rather not be dragged into another dance with Yvette. But what are _you_ doing in here? I thought this party was to cheer you up? And I thought that you invited me here as a- a date? Which generally includes actually spending time with the person.”

“I know, I know.” The closet was big enough for Nia to take a full step back, which she did. But even as her back hit the wall, they were still close. Brainy was glad it was dim lighting, or Nia might have seen the blush rising in his cheeks as his surprise faded away. “There were just so many people and I wasn’t.... ready, you know? It was super nice of Yvette to do this for me, but she didn’t even ask if I wanted it.” She let out a sigh. “I suppose I should get out there, huh?”

“I believe that your friends Andi, Viv and Lauren declared that if you didn’t show up in five minutes they would either leave or hunt for you,” Brainy informed her. “Granted, they have been dancing for ten minutes now without doing either of those things, so I don’t believe they will be making good on that statement.”

Nia snorted a little, and shifted closer to Brainy so she could press her ear to the door. She wrinkled her nose. “What is Yvette even playing? She knows I hate this stuff.”

“I thought that Valentine’s Day was supposed to be... romantic,” Brainy said aloud, if only to distract himself from Nia’s suddenly increased proximity. “Shouldn’t she be playing... _love songs_?”

Nia laughed a little and moved away from the door so she and Brainy were nose to nose again. He swallowed, forced to physically fight the urge to find her hands in the dark and take them in his own.

“I guess so,” Nia said, and Brainy had to remind himself what he had even asked. “Yvette doesn’t really like love songs. Or sappy ones, anyway.”

“Do... you? Like love songs?”

Nia shrugged, and he could just make out her bashful expression in the dim closet light. “Yeah, I do,” she replied. “Not gonna lie... I’m kind of a hopeless romantic. How about you?”

“Am I a hopeless romantic?” Brainy asked, confirming the question. When Nia nodded, he thought about it for a moment. “I believe that romance is hopeless... does that count?”

Nia snorted. “So you’re not a hopeless romantic, you’re just cynical,” she said, shaking her head.

“I am not-” Brainy started, affronted.

“Kidding,” Nia told him, putting her hand on his arm as she laughed. Brainy gulped. He wasn’t sure if he had ever wanted to kiss someone so badly in his entire life. “Being a realist doesn’t making you cynical. But I think that romance isn’t hopeless. I mean, look at-”

“Us?” Brainy asked in a rush.

Silence fell. Brainy saw Nia’s mouth open and close a couple times, wordlessly, and he knew that he’d judged incorrectly. “You weren’t- that wasn’t what you were going to say,” he muttered, taking a quick step back only to bang up against the closet wall. “You weren’t talking about us. Of course you weren’t- we aren’t- this isn’t-”

“I mean, I...” Nia seemed at a loss. “You- I just thought...”

They both trailed off at the same time, staring at each other. Then Nia grabbed the front of Brainy’s sweater and pulled his lips down to hers. Two steps and Nia’s back hit the wall of the closet, Brainy pressed up against her. Her hands wound around his neck and his mouth opened slightly, face tilting to get a better angle. 

Nia was just about to deepen the kiss a little more when the closet door was thrown open. “Ha!” Yvette chortled when she caught sight of the two of them. “Look at you two! Making out in a closet!”

Brainy hurriedly pulled away from Nia, his hair slightly mussed from her fingers and his eyes wide with shock and embarrassment. “We weren’t- we.... well we _were_ , but it-”

Nia coughed and elbowed Brainy in the ribs. “It’s Valentine’s Day, Yvette,” she said cooly. “I’m surprised you haven’t pulled someone into a closet yet.”

“Pfft, girl, I came outta the closet years ago and I’m never going back,” Yvette scoffed, batting Nia in the arm. “Well, I’ll let you two get back to it. Just let me know if I gotta scare all these guests away so you can go somewhere a little more...” She peered into the closet and smirked. “ _Roomy_.”

Nia let out a deep breath and leaned back against the wall as Yvette closed the closet door again. Brainy cleared his throat and folded his hands behind him, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot. “Well that... happened,” he said finally.

“What part?” Nia asked. “Yvette or... the kiss?”

Brainy frowned. “Uh... both of them....?”

Nia laughed, her chin dropping to her chest. “Yeah,” she agreed. “They both.... yeah. That was kind of a stupid question.”

“Which part did... you.... prefer?” Brainy asked cautiously.

Nia glanced back up and laughed again. “Now _that_ is a stupid question.”

He grinned a little, resisting the sudden urge to puff out his chest with pride. “I am glad that you found the experience... enjoyable, Nia Nal. We could, uh-” He cleared his throat, raising his eyebrows a little. “We could... _repeat_ it.”

Nia snorted with giggles. “Querl Dox,” she said teasingly, stepping forward and slipping her hands under his black and white checkered flannel. Brainy shivered a little at the warmth bleeding in through his thin shirt. “I had no idea you were such a flirt.”

“Flirting can be.... learned,” Brainy replied, though he was struggling to stay focused on the conversation as Nia’s hands crept up his sides. Suddenly he squirmed and pulled away. “Ah!”

“What’s wrong?” Nia asked, flushing. “Did I- I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

“I’m _ticklish_ ,” Brainy gritted, and it was _his_ turn to blush. 

Nia’s eyes widened with glee. “Oh you _are_ are you?” she replied, grinning widely before reaching wiggling fingers towards him.

Brainy’s eyes widened and he looked wildly about him for a means of escape, but they were still in a closet and there was nowhere to go. Before he could ward her off, Nia had closed in on him and began tickling him all up and down his sides. Brainy let out a very unmanly shriek and flailed a little, and Nia started cackling with laughter. 

They ended up crushed in a corner, Brainy holding Nia’s hands above their heads so she couldn’t torture him any more. He was panting and her eyes were streaming with mirth. 

“Thank you,” she said, swallowing back the last of her giggles. “I needed that. I haven’t laughed that hard in.....” She shook her head. “I actually have no idea.” 

“Glad I could help,” Brainy replied. 

He cautiously let Nia’s hands go and she rested them on his shoulders, taking a few slow breaths. “I should probably get back to the party. _My_ party. You know.... considering I haven’t showed my face the entire time.”

Brainy nodded his understanding. “Would you like to have me with you?”

Nia’s smiled gently at him, catching the feeling that his words were meeting more than they said at face value. She reached over and took his hand. “I’d love to have you with me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That scene where Brainy goes to Nia’s Valentine’s Party and ends up in a closet tho XD XD I dieddddd when J’onn opened up the closet and he squeaked like an ostrich and slammed it shut again XD XD


	16. Take A Break

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Brainy is working nonstop on finding an alien for the DEO and refuses to take a break. Nia is brought in for backup.   
> Spoilers: None, though it _was_ inspired by a mention in a story I wrote called All So I Could Stay (on ff.n if anyone's interested in checking it out :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry it's been so long since I updated this! Even with all the chapters already done, I honestly haven't had the time... it's kind of a process to HTML code your entire fanfiction just so you can publish it lol.
> 
> Anyway, this is one of my all-time favorite chapters that I've written for Brainia, so enjoy!!

“Hey, Nia. It’s Alex. Uhh.... as odd as this sounds, we need your help with Brainy. Can you come to the DEO as soon as possible? Thanks. See you then.”

Nia stared in dismay at the message on her phone. According to it, Alex had called almost an hour ago. How had she not seen this until now?

Dread filled Nia. It was true that Alex hadn’t sounded very scared, and honestly? Most people needed her help when it came to Brainy. But they were also superheroes, and the ‘get to the DEO as soon as possible’ bit had Nia frantically shutting off her laptop and stuffing things pell-mell into her bag. What if Brainy had been shot or something and was refusing medical attention because he thought he could heal himself? It wouldn’t be the first time.

Nia sprinted off to the elevators, lucky enough to catch one right before it shut. She slipped into an empty space and squeezed her hands tightly together as she watched the numbers flicker slowly down from twenty. Had the elevator always been this slow?

The doors opened on floor one and Nia bolted out, barely avoiding crashing into someone holding a thick binder of paper and a cup of coffee. She let out a breath of relief as she waved a quick sorry and kept going. That could have gotten messy... and time consuming.

A bus was going to take too long, and CatCo wasn’t that far from the in-city DEO location, anyway. Nia took a deep breath and began to run down the sidewalk, mindful of the usual mid-afternoon rush as she dodged her way towards the DEO. She arrived in under ten minutes, breathless and with her hair flying around her face. 

Nia took a second outside of the building to draw in a deep, slow breath and calm down her hair. Then she walked quickly into the building.

After surpassing the front security, Nia took the elevator up to the second floor, where most of the operations were. Alex happened to be standing at the main briefing table, and when she caught sight of Nia she looked visibly relieved. “Thank God you’re here,” Alex breathed as she hurried over. 

All of Nia’s worries came flooding back and she reached out for Alex’s arm, suddenly shaky. “What happened?” she asked. “Is Brainy okay?”

“He’s-” Alex caught the fear in her eyes. “He’s not hurt or anything. No one attacked.”

Nia let out a breath, a weight lifting from her chest. “Okay,” she whispered. “Good. Good. Umm... so what’s up?”

Alex jutted her chin over at the IT desks at the front of the room, and Nia followed her gaze. The largest screen was taken up with a map of the city, which was slowly zooming in and out. Brainy was in his normal chair, elbows resting on the armrests and fingers steepled under his chin, staring at his smaller computer screen. Nia frowned, not seeing what the problem was, and looked back to Alex.

“He’s been like that,” Alex said, “for _six hours_.”

Nia’s eyebrows rose. “Like... six hours.... straight?”

“Mhm,” Alex replied, lips pinching. “He hasn’t left his desk once. He’s barely even moved.”

Nia sent a concerned and slightly alarmed glance back over at her boyfriend. “What exactly is he doing?”

“We’re trying to track an alien,” Alex told her offhandedly. “Brainy’s convinced he needs to keep his eye on his code at all times because it’s fluctuating so much or something.” She shook her head. “But I’m sure it doesn’t fluctuate so much that he can’t even take a three minute break.”

Nia nodded, wincing slightly as she edged her way closer to the IT’s side of the room. “I’ll, uh... see what I can do,” she told Alex. “No promises, though.”

Alex blew out a breath and passed her fingers through her hair. “Honestly? I’ll be glad if he turns his head.”

Nia winced again and crossed the room the rest of the way to Brainy’s desk. “Hey, honey...” she said tentatively, putting her hand on Brainy’s shoulder.

Brainy didn’t reply, his eyes flitting back and forth across the screen as more code scrolled. The large-screen map zoomed in a little, and then slowly edged to the right.

“What are you working on?” Nia asked, trying again. Brainy blinked, but that was all. 

Nia sat down on the edge of Brainy’s uncluttered desk, rubbing her hand down his arm. Nia could see his face a little better from this angle. His eyes were glazed and bloodshot and his face was unusually pale, partially due to the glow from his computer.

“Hey,” Nia whispered, leaning in closer and pressing her lips to Brainy’s cheek. When there was still no response, Nia let out a frustrated sigh and reached up to run her fingers through Brainy’s hair. She scratched slightly at his scalp in the way she knew always relaxed him, before getting up again to stand behind him so she could use both hands. 

Brainy’s shoulders dipped and he let out a slow breath through his mouth. Nia moved her hands down to his neck, feeling knots crunch under her fingertips. She couldn’t even imagine the state his back was in after sitting in the same position for six hours straight. 

Nia’s thumbs pressed into an especially tight spot on Brainy’s neck and he let out a soft groan, eyes slipping shut. Nia smiled a little, fingers drifting down to start working on his shoulders. 

In a few minutes, Brainy was curled over at the middle, his forehead pressed into his desk. Nia thought she might have more luck this time, and tried talking to him again. “Brainy, can you hear me? Alex said you haven’t stopped working all day.”

Brainy mumbled something and Nia leaned forward. “I can’t hear you.”

He lifted his head slightly. “We... have to find the alien... before...” He trailed off, blinking slowly. “What... time is it? Why are you here?”

Nia looked at her watch. “It’s almost four o’clock,” she told him. “You’ve been working for six hours. Alex has tried to get you to take a break, but you refused, so she called me.”

“Oh,” Brainy mumbled, lowered his forehead back into the desk.

Nia smiled a little and put her arm around his shoulders. “Come on,” she urged, heaving him out of his chair and staggering a little as he nearly fell against her. 

“My code-” Brainy protested weakly as she helped him toward a side room. 

“It’s not going anywhere,” Nia told him firmly. “Besides, you always tell me that when you’re working on something hard, stepping away and taking a break before going back to it can sometimes help you to think clearly.”

“For _humans_ ,” Brainy scoffed, tripping a little. Nia stumbled with him as she tried to keep him on his feet. “I am Querl Dox, Brainiac 5. I do not need... _breaks_.”

“Uh huh,” Nia replied skeptically. She opened up a door on her left with her free hand and shoved Brainy inside, then slipped in behind him and shut the door.

Brainy found the cot in the corner of the room and collapsed onto it, resting his head back against the wall. “Fine,” he mumbled, rubbing at his face. “Maybe I _do_ need a break.”

Nia smiled, pleased by his admission. She knew that weakness wasn’t something that Brainy liked to display, and she felt a little honored that he was letting down his guard in that moment. She walked over and sat a little ways away from him, reaching over and tugging him down so his head landed in her lap. “Here,” she murmured, pushing her fingers through his hair again. “Just rest, okay?”

“I need... to get back to.... work...” Brainy protested, though his voice was fading.

“In a minute,” Nia promised softly, leaning down and pressing a soft, lingering kiss to his forehead. “Then I’ll let you go back with the conditions that you eat the food I bring you and I get to stay.”

“I accept your terms and conditions,” Brainy mumbled, and Nia smirked at how much those words reminded her of a pop-up on a website. She realized he was doing that on purpose when he added, “If you accept my cookies.”

Nia laughed, brushing her hand down the side of his face. After a minute or two, Brainy’s breathing evened out and the muscles in his face and back relaxed. “Brainy?” Nia whispered tentatively. He didn’t move, and her only response was a faint snore.

Nia leaned back against the wall, trying not to jostle Brainy any. She couldn’t imagine the position he was in -torso on the bed, head in her lap, legs still hanging over the side of the cot- was doing any good for his back, but she wasn’t about to wake him up just for that. 

There was a soft knock on the door and Nia glanced up as Alex poked her head inside. She let out a breath when she saw Brainy passed out with his head in Nia’s lap, and a grin crossed her face. “Too cute. Picture?”

“Please,” Nia agreed, grinning back as Alex pulled out her iPhone and took a picture of her and her sleeping boyfriend. After that had been taken care of (and the picture sent to Kara and Kelly, of course), Nia sobered up a little. “Thank you for calling me, Alex,” she said seriously, making sure to keep her voice low so she wouldn’t disturb Brainy. “Never hesitate to do so in the future.”

“Noted,” Alex nodded, sitting down in the chair that was also set up in the room. “I’m sorry I let it get this far. At first I didn’t even notice, but after a few hours I sent an agent to take over. Brainy kind of went off on him, so I went over myself. He didn’t take to me telling him to take a break much better, though.”

Nia shook her head, exasperated, and looking down at Brainy. His eyes were twitching under their lids, but other than that his face was completely lax. Nia noticed how tired he looked, dark rings accenting puffy circles around his eyes. “I’ll talk to him,” she told Alex, brushing her hand across his hair again. “Don’t know how happy he’ll be with me or how well he’ll take it, but he needs to learn he can trust other people to watch a code or do their jobs. At the very least, he should be listening to his boss.”

Alex laughed quietly, her eyes falling to Brainy, too. “This is partially my fault,” she admitted. “I’ve been pushing him. He can do so much, and he _does_ do so much, and it makes me expect a lot, all the time.”

Nia shrugged. She had noticed that about Alex, that she tended to get very frustrated with Brainy when he didn’t have some elaborate piece of tech ready fast enough or something he made didn’t work. It had lead to multiple evenings where Brainy had come home and begun ranting to Nia about how useless and incompetent he was, but Nia didn’t really blame her friend. 

“I think, sometimes...” she trailed off, trying to get her words in order. “I think sometimes he just always seems like he has it under control, and that he can do everything. He doesn’t... crash like this very often. And he doesn’t usually let people see it when he does.” She shrugged again. “I think it’s easy to see someone as limitless when they never show you any of their limits.”

Alex nodded a little, still watching Brainy as he slept. “Still,” she persisted. “He might be my employee, but he’s also my friend. Maybe a few days off would do him good.”

“I don’t think he’ll receive that very well,” Nia snickered. “I doubt he’d take days off even if he had some sort of nearly-fatal injury in the field.”

“You have a point,” Alex snorted. 

Either her laughter or the accidental volume of her voice was enough to make Brainy stir. He lifted his head blearily, looking up at Nia with a foggy, childlike gaze. “Hey, babe,” Nia murmured, smiling down at him. “Good nap?”

“I fell asleep?” Brainy mumbled, sitting up. Nia’s hand fell from his hair and she ran it down his arm instead, smoothing out his crumpled shirtsleeve. 

“Yes, you did,” Alex replied, and Brainy jumped a little, looking up at her sharply.

He squinted. “You both were just... sitting here... and watching me sleep?”

“That we were,” Nia smirked. 

Brainy rubbed at his eyes and stretched, his back cracking. Nia cringed and Alex wrinkled her nose. “What would you say to a day off so you can go to the spa?” she asked Brainy, only half joking.

Brainy squinted at her again. “The... spa? When I could do something fun? Like paint-balling or- or kissing Nia?”

Nia choked and Alex burst into laughter. Brainy frowned. “I did not realize I had said something amusing.”

“There’s no filter,” Nia sighed, cheeks dark red. “Absolutely no filter.”

Alex laughed again, and got to her feet. “I’m going to check on everything out there,” she told the couple, nodding towards the main room of the DEO before leveling Brainy with a stern look. “ _Take your time_ , please. And I will be expecting you to take regular ten minute breaks every hour once you get back to work. I would force you to go home, but...”

“I would not agree,” Brainy finished, nodding. “I appreciate your understanding, Director Danvers. I will be with you shortly.”

Alex nodded back and walked out of the room.

“Hey,” Nia said, looking over at Brainy and his still-haggard appearance again. “Are you sure you don’t just want to go home? We could curl up on the couch and watch some TV and eat popcorn for dinner.”

Brainy smiled a little, looking down at his hands. “Please- stop talking,” he replied gently. “If you say any more... I might just agree to go home with you.”

That wasn’t exactly incentive for Nia to stop talking, in her opinion, but she respected his wishes. “Okay,” she murmured. “And why can’t you? Come home, I mean.”

“We need to find this alien, Nia,” Brainy said with a sigh, shaking his head. “The IT department here is... competent, I suppose. But they cannot make themselves _apart_ of the code like I can.” He sighed again and got slowly to his feet. “The last time the alien struck, it landed and drained all of the power out of a children’s hospital.”

Nia’s eyes widened. “Oh.”

Brainy nodded. “Oh,” he repeated, with one final sigh. “So I... must keep looking. I cannot.... I cannot allow that to happen again.”

He took a step and stumbled a little, listing to the side like he was drunk. Nia hopped up and grabbed his arm. “Hey,” she said, concerned. On impulse, she reached up and felt at Brainy’s forehead. “Brainy... I think you have a fever....?”

Brainy snorted. “I cannot get fevers,” he told her, rolling his eyes. 

Nia raised an eyebrow, putting the back of her hand against her forehead, and then his again to check for a second time. “You sure about that?”

“I can... overheat,” Brainy amended. “Rather like when your computer works too hard. Unfortunately, I do not have a fan to cool myself down.” He shifted uncomfortably. “It appears that I worked a bit harder than even I realized.”

“Please come home with me,” Nia begged, eyes pleading with him.

“You know that I cannot,” Brainy said, straightening his spine. Nia winced a little as another crack filled the silence. He hesitated, then caved a little. “But... I would like with you to come with me.”

“Hey, that was apart of the terms and conditions, right?” Nia said with a smile, taking his hand so he could lean his weight on her in more of a covert way than they had gotten there. “Do you mind if I pop out and get some food first, though? I doubt you’ve had lunch.”

As if on cue, Brainy‘ stomach growled. “Yes, food would be... highly appreciated. Also, would you help me to a bathroom before you leave?”

Nia’s eyes widened. “Wait, you haven’t even-? For six hours?”

“No,” Brainy replied, pinching his lips together.

“Wow,” Nia whistled, then laughed. “Yes, I’ll definitely help you.”

About a half hour later, Nia was walking back into the DEO with some warm, delicious-smelling takeout in a reusable shopping back, as well as the last cookie from a bakery down the street. She figured that would be a nice pick-me-up if Brainy had to be at work for too much longer.

When Nia arrived in the main room of the DEO, she found Brainy back at his desk, code scrolling away and map still moving slowly across the big screen. Nia took down the bag of takeout on his desk and Brainy’s head lifted. “Food?” he asked hopefully, already digging into the bag. 

Nia nodded, laughing a little as he began to furiously sift through the contents of the bag and pull out his meal. Before he inhaled it, he looked up at her. “Thank you, Nia Nal. I really don’t know what I would do without you.” 

Nia melted a little, and leaned down to kiss him. “That’s what I’m here for,” she murmured, reaching over to give his shoulder a squeeze. “Now eat up.”

Luckily for Nia, who got bored pretty quickly considering her boyfriend was too concentrated to talk to her very much, the alien was found in under the next two hours. When Brainy staggered to his feet to head out into the field, Alex put a heavy hand on his shoulder. “ _Go home_ ,” she ordered, glaring at him.

To Alex and Nia’s surprise, Brainy’s shoulders slumped and he nodded his agreement. Nia put an arm around his waist and pressed her lips to his temple. “You’re so warm,” she murmured. “Is there anything I can pick you up on the way home to bring down your fever?”

Brainy shook his head, feet shuffling against the floor as they walked slowly out of the DEO. “No,” he sighed. “It’s not _really_ a fever, so normal reducers won’t work on me. Let us just... go home.”

Nia ended up calling an Uber, knowing that Brainy didn’t like public transportation on normal days and that there was no _way_ they were going to make it home on foot. They loaded into the back of the car and Nia gave the driver the address. Even though it was only a five minute drive, Brainy ended up falling asleep again, face pressed to the window and hair falling across his cheek. Nia hated to wake him up when the Uber pulled up at their apartment, but she didn’t have much of a choice.

“Brainy?” Nia whispered, shaking his shoulder and trying to ignore the gaze of the Uber driver in the front seat. “We’re here.”

Brainy mumbled a little and lifted his head, eyes glazed. “Mmm?”

Nia smiled and got out of the car, walking around to the other side to help Brainy out. “Thank you,” she called to the Uber driver. “Have a nice day.”

He waved and drove off, and Nia put her arm around her boyfriend’s waist to help him inside. When they made it up to their apartment, Nia settled Brainy on the couch. He was fading quickly, and his eyelids kept falling closed before he would jerk them open again. 

“I’m going to make some tea, okay?” Nia told him, leaning down to kiss his forehead. He was still uncomfortably feverish, and his face didn’t have much color in it anymore. “Shut your eyes for a bit. You clearly need some sleep.”

“Thank you,” Brainy murmured, surprisingly agreeable, before curling up against the armrest. He was out almost immediately, and Nia grabbed the afghan from the back of the couch so she could tuck it over him. She wandered into the kitchen, yawning a little, and plugged in the tea kettle so the water would boil. Then she pulled out her phone and texted Alex, figuring her friend deserved an update.

_‘We made it home. He’s asleep on the couch rn with what feels like a fever but is apparently just him overheating like an overworked computer. Techno-organic boyfriends lol *eyeroll*’_

Alex replied almost immediately. _‘Glad you got home ok. Has he asked you to plug him in yet? XD’_

Nia snorted. _‘Not yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Thx again for calling me today.’_

_‘Thanks for showing up.’_

Nia smiled and shut off her phone as the water reached a rolling boil. She grabbed two mugs, even though she wasn’t sure if Brainy was even going to be awake enough to drink, and fixed up two cups of tea. 

By the time she got back, Brainy had slipped sideways a little on the couch. Nia adjusted his blanket to accommodate and sat down next to him. She put his cup down on a coaster and held her own in her lap, the warmth seeping into her hands. 

They would have to have a conversation, definitely. Brainy needed to learn how to know and respect his limits, and how to let other people know that he had to stop. Nia was worried that, if he didn’t, he would push himself past his breaking point and seriously hurt himself.

But that conversation could wait. For now, Nia curled up with her tea and let Brainy sleep.


	17. Seven Days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Nia goes on a business trip to report for CatCo. Brainy really just misses his girlfriend.
> 
> Spoilers: I mention Alex and Kelly, so you might want to have at least season 4 under your belt, info-wise.

_Tuesday, 3:46am_

Brainy woke up to an empty bed. 

He let out a sigh and rolled onto his back, staring up at the ceiling even though it was too dark to see anything. Nia had already been gone for two days, but Brainy still hadn’t gotten used to waking up in the middle of the night without her warm, comforting, most likely snoring presence beside him.

Nightmares were always a big problem for him. Usually, he could keep himself quiet with sheer force of will and some mental compartmentalization, but there were still nights when he would wake up screaming, soaked in sweat. Nia would simply pull him back down into the covers, not asking anything, just holding him and maybe humming softly until he fell back asleep.

But even on the nights when Brainy _didn’t_ wake her up, just having Nia there was a comfort to him, especially when his dream had to do with her. Then he would turn onto his side, facing her, and watch her breathe until he convinced himself that she was okay.

Not tonight. Tonight, Nia was somewhere a couple hundred miles away, probably still sound asleep. Brainy’s phone was on the nightstand and he looked over at it longingly. It would be so easy to just pick it up and call his girlfriend. But he resisted, because he didn’t want to wake her and make her worry. One should always be well-rested when they were on an important business trip (their _first_ business trip) for a big media company like CatCo. Besides that, he knew that if Nia got it in her head that he needed her, she would truly drop everything and take the soonest flight back to National City to be with him.

The thought made calling her almost more tempting, but Brainy forced himself to close his eyes and get back to sleep. Nia would be back in five days. He could handle a single week without her.

 _Wednesday, 11:06am_

“Okay, what’s been going on with you these past few days?” Alex demanded as Brainy snapped at her for the third time that morning. “You’ve been all out of sorts lately. Is something going on that you need to get off your chest?”

Brainy huffed and crossed his arms defensively over his aforementioned chest. “There is nothing on my chest but my shirt,” he told his boss. “I apologize if I have been... rude, of late. The lack of Nia’s presence is.... unsettling me.”

“Oh, she’s on her business trip this week, isn’t she?” Alex realized, looking at him with considerable more sympathy. “How’s that going?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Brainy said stiffly. “I have not contacted her since she left on Sunday, nor has she gotten in touch with me.”

“You haven’t even texted?” Alex asked, incredulous. She and Kelly could barely go three hours without checking in on each other, no matter how busy things were at the DEO or Obsidian North.

Brainy’s lips pinched. “I do not wish to... tie her down,” he replied. “This is a big opportunity for her, and I do not want her to feel like she has to waste her time checking in on me.”

Alex shook her head and let out a sigh, pulling up a chair so she could sit. “Brainy,” she began, giving him a look. “If Nia saw spending time on you as a burden or a waste of time, you two wouldn’t be together anymore. My guess is that right now she’s stressed and overwhelmed and probably is dying for you to call her.”

“Then... why won’t she call _me_?”

Alex shrugged. “Because that girl is stubborn as heck, and probably wants to make it seem like she’s totally collected and has it all under control.” She paused. “I mean, I could be completely wrong. But dating a psychologist _does_ give you some insight into how people think.” 

Alex got to her feet again and patted Brainy’s knee. “Give her a call, okay? I bet she’d love to hear from you.”

_Wednesday, 8:02pm_

Brainy sat in the too-quiet, too-empty apartment that he and Nia owned together and stared down at his phone. He thought back on how surprised Alex had seemed when he said he hadn’t talked to Nia since she had left. Apparently, talking to your significant other when they were away was an acceptable, and even expected, action. But even so, Brainy felt like he might be too clingy if he called. He didn’t want to annoy Nia any more than he was sure he already did.

At the same time... he really did miss her. He knew that the time from 6am on Sunday when Nia had left for the airport and 8pm that evening was the same amount of hours as any other week, but it had felt so much longer.

Taking a deep breath, Brainy pressed on Nia’s contact and started a call. He held the phone up to his ear, tapping his finger restlessly against his knee as the phone rang once. And then again. And then again. And then-

_“Hi, you have reached my voicemail. Sorry I didn’t pick up! If you leave a message, I’ll do my best to return your call, or at least send you a text. Have an awesome day!”_

Brainy’s face fell, even as his chest warmed at the sound of Nia’s voice. He heard the dial tone and opened his mouth to speak, but wasn’t sure what to say. I miss you? I love you? Come home because I need you even though you’ve only been gone for approximately 86 hours and 4 minutes? 

Brainy shut his mouth and ended the call, letting his phone fall into his lap. He let out a deep sigh. Alex, it seemed, was wrong. Not only did Nia not want him to call, but she didn’t want to talk to him at all. 

_Thursday, 7:00am_

Brainy woke up at exactly 7 o’clock in the morning, like he did every day. After getting dressed and preparing himself a quick breakfast of peanut butter and egos waffles (which was the greatest breakfast in the universe), he connected his techno side with his phone and ran through his messages. Most were emails from various companies he had accidentally subscribed to. There was a text from the group chat, planning the next game night, and... 

A phone message

Brainy’s hopes, which had lit up with happiness and anticipation, plummeted when he realized the message wasn’t, in fact, from Nia. It was from Alex, letting him know that she was going to be arriving at work late and that he should call her if there was anything important. At the tail end of the message he heard Kelly’s voice giggling from the background and calling her girlfriend back to bed.

Brainy let out a deep sigh, shoving his phone deep in his pocket. He had been hoping that Nia would have called him back, or at least texted him, after he attempted to contact her last night. There was also a side of him that was fiercely jealous of Alex and how she got to spend the morning with her significant other. Brainy resolved then and there that, when Nia got back home, he wouldn’t rush off to work like he did every morning. Instead, he would make sure Nia stayed in bed and that they had some quality time together to begin the day right.

Unfortunately, those dreams only made Brainy miss her more.

 _Thursday, 12:58pm_

Brainy had developed and interesting (and concerning) thought over lunch that day. It had somehow slipped his mind that Nia was a superhero, which meant that her life was almost constantly in danger. She wasn’t answering his calls and he hadn’t heard from her at all, but maybe it didn’t mean she was ignoring him. 

Maybe it meant she was in trouble.

Resolved to make sure, Brainy headed for CatCo during his break. Kara would surely know if Nia had gone off the record or hadn’t been heard from in awhile. 

He found the blond reporter clicking away at her computer and, as usual, eating potstickers. Brainy cleared his throat once he got within earshot, and Kara jumped a little, spinning around. “Oh, hey Brainy!” she greeted, pushing her glasses up her nose. “What’re you doing here?”

“I am here to check on Nia,” Brainy replied, clasping his hands behind his back.

Kara frowned. “Um... she’s not here. You dropped her off at the airport on Sunday, remember?”

“Of course I remember,” Brainy huffed. In fact, what he remembered was a slightly embarrassing goodbye when he had given Nia a hug that lasted so long that she had actually had to pry him off of her. “I was merely meaning that I’m here to check on Nia’s _status_. I haven’t heard anything from her since Sunday, and I was beginning to get... concerned. Being a-” he lowered his voice, “ _superhero_ does not make for the best safety insurance.”

Kara’s frown deepened. “You haven’t heard from her? She texted me like four times this morning.” She paused, realizing where that may have come off a little hurtful, considering how dramatically Brainy’s face fell. “Point being, she’s fine! She hasn’t been, like, kidnapped or anything.”

“Good,” Brainy said, already beginning to turn away. It wasn’t as if he had _hoped_ that Nia had been captured, but at least it would mean that she wasn’t not replying because she was ignoring him.

“Brainy!” Kara called after him, and he paused, turning around reluctantly. “You seriously haven’t heard from her? Have you tried calling her?”

“I did,” Brainy snapped. “Last night. She... did not reply.”

“She was at a conference for, like, four hours last night,” Kara told him. “She probably had her phone off or crashed back at her hotel room, depending on when you called.”

“Oh.” Brainy felt a little better at hearing that, but.... “Then why did she not return my call this morning? Did she have another conference?”

Kara’s mouth scrunched. “No....” she said slowly. “I don’t... I don’t really know why she didn’t call you back. I guess you could ask her...?”

“It’s fine,” Brainy said stiffly, turning back around. “She will be home soon.”

Not soon enough, though. An hour wouldn’t even be soon enough. 

_Friday, 1:31am_

_There were six holes in the ground, fixed in a perfect hexagon. Brainy wasn’t thinking that much about shapes, though, because from those six holes was an out-pouring of snakes._

_He scrambled backward, watching as the ground soon became a sea of writhing bodies. And Nia -beautiful, fearless, somehow oblivious Nia- was in the middle of it all. He tried to call out to her, to get her to step away, but his voice was locked in his throat. He could only watch as the snakes began to slither up her arms and legs, twining their way up and around her body._

_Brainy tried to run forward, to attack, but then he felt two slithery creatures slipping across his wrists. His body froze with fear and he couldn’t even blink as the snakes bound his wrists together._

_Then a large green serpent, about eight feet long and half a foot thick, lifted its head from the pile of snakes on the floor. Its eyes were large and beady, and its fangs were horrendously disproportioned to the rest of it, at least half a foot long each._

_The serpent lifted it’s head, and barely waited another second before driving his fangs into Nia’s leg. She and Brainy both screamed, Brainy’s scream ringing out even after Nia had disintegrated into dust._

Brainy awoke with a start, breath coming in gasps as he groped around on the other side of the bed for Nia. His hand came up empty, and an intense panic seized him until he remembered.

She was still gone.

Brainy fell back against the pillows, trembling. Nia’s screaming face as it had crumbled into dust wouldn’t leave his head. He needed to touch her right now, to make sure she was okay, to see that she was there. He needed- he needed-

Brainy grabbed for his phone, flinching at the sudden brightness of the screen as he jammed his fingers against the buttons. In moments, he was holding his phone up to his ear, waiting. His fingers picked at a hangnail on his thumb, worrying it so deep it started to bleed. 

_“Hi, you have reached my voicemail-”_

Brainy ended the call and threw his phone aside, burying his face in his hands with a dry sob. When. _When_ had he become _so dependent_ on another human being? He had lived without Nia Nal for _years_ before they had met. And even after they had, he had gone weeks on end without seeing her or hearing from her even once! Of course he had thought about her, at first because she was Nura’s descendant and after that because he was falling in love. But he hadn’t needed to be with her every second of the day.

Brainy fell back onto his side, curling up into a ball. Even with a sheet, fleece and quilt on, the bed felt cold. 

Why hadn’t she picked up the phone? 

_Friday, 10:34am_

Brainy was awoken by someone shaking his shoulder. He lifted his head, wincing as he felt his skin peel away from the keys of his laptop, and blinked blearily up at who had woken him up.

“Good grief, Agent Dox,” Alex said, shaking her head. “You look awful.”

Brainy rubbed his face, sitting up the rest of the way. “Avid observation, Director Danvers. My... apologies for falling asleep at the job.”

“We’ve all done it,” Alex told him leniently. “I didn’t really expect you to, though.” She frowned and nudged him in his shoulder. “You aren’t sick, right?”

“I cannot _get_ sick,” Brainy replied disdainfully. “I happened to have a very early morning today.”

Alex eyed him sympathetically. “Nightmares?” she guessed.

That was all it took. Brainy wrapped his arms around himself and ducked his chin. “I have watched Nia die in my dreams _many_ times,” he mumbled. “But.... she was always right there beside me when I would awake. I attempted to call her -again, I may add- but she didn’t pick up the phone. In her defense, it was at one in the morning, but I...” He swallowed. “I need her, Alex, and I... am not used to- to _needing_ people.”

“You love her,” Alex said simply. “Also, you guys are still in your honeymoon stage. Of course you’re going to be longing for her basically every second of the day. _Especially_ because you haven’t even texted since she left on Sunday. You said you tried calling her twice?”

Brainy nodded. “She didn’t pick up,” he sighed. “Kara said that she has been in contact with _her_.... I do not... understand what I have done to deserve this silent treatment.”

“Honestly?” Alex pulled a face. “I don’t either. This doesn’t seem like Nia to me. Have you tried just texting her?”

“No,” Brainy grumbled, crossing his arms tighter. “I am done attempted to contact her. I do not want to be.... clingy.”

“Okay.” Alex reached down and patted his shoulder. “Get back to work, Agent Dox. But if I catch you sleeping again I’m going to make you take the day off.”

_Saturday, 12:12pm_

Brainy was sitting at lunch with J’onn, who had decided to take him out to eat to get his mind off of Nia.

“She comes home tomorrow,” J’onn reminded him as Brainy sighed and knocked his straw around his glass of water. 

“Yes, her flight comes in at 5am,” Brainy replied, feeling a small explosion of butterflies when he thought about how soon that was. “I am driving to the airport to pick her up.”

J’onn smiled. “You’re a good boyfriend,” he said, reaching across the table to pat Brainy’s shoulder.

Brainy let out another sigh and dipped his chin a little, staring off into space. “J’onn... do you think that I am.... too clingy?”

“No,” J’onn replied definitely, shaking his head. “You and Nia both respect each others separate lives. You spend an appropriate amount of time together, and have multiple priorities besides your relationship, like work and being superheroes. I don’t think there’s any part of your relationship that’s ‘clingy’.”

Brainy nodded a little, actually reassured by J’onn’s words. The older man had that way about him. “I... attempted to call her,” he confessed. “Twice. She didn’t pick up either time, nor did she try and contact me.”

J’onn, much like Alex, seemed confused at that. “Huh,” he mused, picking up his coffee mug and giving it a sip. “Well, I guess you’ll just have to talk about that on Sunday. Figure out what your differing opinions are about how much space you need when she goes off on a business trip like this.”

Brainy felt frustration welling up inside him. “Why can’t anything just be simple?” he asked, not expecting an answer. “Why can’t I just _know_ what Nia wants? I feel as though I have to ask and confirm every move I make, and that she needs to do the same. Are.... all relationships like this, or is it just... us?”

J’onn laughed. “Can’t say I know all that much about human relationships,” he said. “But, yes, I think that asking about boundaries and what each other wants is unusual. Not a _bad_ unusual, though. I think that more people should act the way you two act.”

“You... really think that?” Brainy asked, lifting his head. He was touched. “That... we have a model relationship?”

“Don’t let it go to your head,” J’onn snorted, patting his shoulder again. “But yes. What you and Nia have is very special and very.... healthy. Especially because you’re a techno-organic being from the future and she’s half-alien. You wouldn’t expect it to work, but it does.”

Brainy smiled. Just talking about Nia, about _them_ , was making him feel incrementally better. But he still missed her.

Five o’clock tomorrow morning could not come quickly enough.

_Sunday, 5:02am_

Brainy fidgeted with his Legion ring as he waited in the airport terminal for Nia’s plane to land. They had been delayed by a few minutes at takeoff, but Brainy had shown up at 4:50 just in case she still made it in early. Now he had been waiting for nearly fifteen minutes, and the seconds were starting to drag by.

Just as he was about to walk off and get himself a cup of coffee, Brainy saw a familiar brunette head bobbing through a sea of people. Brainy’s face broke into a wide smile as Nia came into view. She looked exhausted and was wearing sweatpants and a giant messy bun, but she let out a very uncharacteristic squeal when she saw Brainy and flew forward into his arms.

Needless to say, Brainy was glad he wasn’t holding any coffee as he crushed Nia in a hug. Nia pressed her lips against his neck, followed by his cheek, before turning his chin so she could properly kiss him hello. 

“I missed you,” she mumbled when they broke apart, burying her face into his shoulder. “So much.”

“I missed you as well,” Brainy replied, resting his cheek on top of her head, heedless of the people forced to veer off-course to avoid hitting them. He was unable to stop a little hurt from seeping into his voice when he said, “I called you. Twice.”

“Twice?” Nia pulled back a little and frowned. “I got your first call, but...” She trailed off, looking embarrassed. “I wasn’t.... I wasn’t sure if you had called me accidentally, because you didn’t leave a message, and I didn’t want to make it seem like... God, it’s really stupid.”

“Like you weren‘t confident and capable?” Brainy supplied, mentally reminding himself to thank Alex later. 

“Yeah, kinda,” Nia agreed, wincing. “I know it’s stupid. This was just... it was the first trip I’ve done for CatCo, and I wanted to be professional, and I honestly didn’t think that you’d need me.” 

“You didn’t-?” Brainy broke off, shaking his head with a faint laugh. “Nia, I have missed you every second of the past seven days. You can ask Alex, if you do not believe me.”

Nia’s face melted into an ‘awww‘ expression and she kissed him again before shaking her head. “But seriously- you called twice? I swear I didn’t see the second time; I would have called you back if I had.”

Brainy resisted the urge to hit himself. If he had just called _one more time_ , this past week could have been so much less painful. “I called you... rather late,” he confessed. “Or... early. Around 1am.”

“1am? What were you doing up then?” 

“I-” Brainy hesitated. “It’s... not important.”

“Of course it’s important,” Nia said. She looked over at him suspiciously. “Did you have a nightmare? About me?”

Brainy turned her so his arm was around her shoulders, picking up her previously abandoned luggage from the floor so that they could start walking towards the airport’s exit. “It.... yes, it had you in it. And some... snakes. You disintegrated.”

“Ew,” Nia cringed. She bit her lip and looked over at him. “I’m so sorry. I should have picked up. I would have if I had heard my phone ring.”

“I’m glad you did not,” Brainy told her sincerely. “You deserved this opportunity. I know how you are, Nia Nal, and I couldn’t have you rushing back to National City just because I missed you.”

Nia smiled faintly, resting her head on his shoulder. “I missed you, too,” she said again, inhaling deeply like she was breathing him in. He understood the urge; he’d been doing it for the past five minutes himself. “As great as my trip was, it really is nice to be home.”

She let out a yawn, eyelids drooping. “Can we stop for coffee?”

“I believe that we have to, unless you want me to fall asleep at the wheel,” Brainy snorted, directing their path to a coffee kiosk. Even this early in the morning, there was still a pretty hefty line. “Even with my... enhanced biology, getting up at 4 am does not agree with me.”

“Pfft.” Nia shook her head, unimpressed. “You think you have it rough? I got on my flight at 1 o’clock this morning. I didn’t even go to sleep last night. I am literally going to sue CatCo for making me take a redeye home.”

Brainy frowned. “I don’t think you’ll be able to win that court case,” he told her wryly.

She opened her mouth and then shut it again, shaking her head. “No, I won’t. Have I told you I missed you yet?”

“Twice,” Brainy told her, pressing a kiss to her temples. It was so nice just to be near her again. “But I don’t mind.”

_Monday, 7am_

Brainy woke up at the same time he always did. He turned over on his side, draping his arm around Nia’s waist and dragging her closer. She mumbled in her sleep, burrowing her face into his neck. Brainy soaked in the warmth and proximity of her body, lips turned up at the corners.

The movement in the bed was enough to wake Nia up, and she blinked over at him. “Good morning,” she murmured contentedly, giving Brainy a soft, sleepy smile. “The hotel bed was nice but I missed waking up with you.”

He nuzzled his nose against hers, lightly kissing her upper lip. 

“We should get up,” Nia said with a sigh, reluctantly pulling away from their warm bundle.

Brainy grinned and dragged her back down into the bed. “Actually,” he said, smirking. “I believe that the business of the last week caused you to come down with a bit of a cold. And I simply _cannot_ go to work if my girlfriend is sick.”

Nia’s entire face lit up. “Querl Dox,” she said, laughing. “Did you just suggest playing hooky?”

Brainy grinned back at her. He had promised himself that, when Nia got back, he would show her just how much he missed her. And he was going to do just that. 

“Yes, I did,” he said, dragging her back into his chest and tucking the covers more firmly around the two of them. “And I probably never will again, so.... enjoy it while it lasts.”

Nia did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't usually bring other characters into these stories but it was honestly so fun to do that during this chapter. Does anyone else feel like Brainia's relationship is usually kind of... detached from the rest of the show? They always feel like they're off in the corner doing their own little thing, but maybe that's just me lol.


	18. Double Ended Candle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: When you burn the candle at both ends, the wax melts to nothing that much faster. Nia discovers that firsthand when she overdoes it and collapses at CatCo. 
> 
> Spoilers: It’s set in Season 5. So, hey, if you haven’t seen Season 5, this is the perfect excuse to watch it XD

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this chapter off of a prompt where someone wanted to see a reverse chapter of Take A Break, so here it is!

Nia had gotten so tired that she didn’t even groan when her alarm went off at 5 am anymore.

She couldn’t keep living like this.

The early morning in itself wasn’t so bad. Plenty of perfectly rested, healthy people woke up regularly at 5am. But those same people also weren’t staying out on superhero patrol until late at night and then writing deadlined articles into the wee hours of the morning. Crime never rested, and neither did the news.

So Nia didn’t, either.

Nia slapped blearily at her phone, finally hitting the right spot on the screen so the alarm stopped beeping. She glanced over at Brainy and found him still fast asleep, fingers steepled on his chest like they always were when he rested. She honestly couldn’t understand him sometimes... her alarm blared at 5 in the morning and he slept on, but if she had a nightmare he was sitting up in milliseconds, alert and calm. 

Nia yawned and got out of bed, shivering as she was forced to push her covers off. She was exhausted and freezing and really just wanted a day to take a break. She really didn’t see how Kara did it; Supergirl was even more busy and vital than Dreamer. Although.... there were many times that Nia had to cover for her at CatCo and even do some of her work when she really couldn’t. And Nia was sure the super speed didn’t hurt Kara’s case.

But Nia didn’t have super speed. Now, she didn’t even an understand boss who knew she moonlighted as a superhero and was sometimes just too busy saving the day to write a paper about a new bakery opening downtown. Nia missed James. A lot. She also missed the days when she didn’t have to back out of game nights because she had too much work to do. And she and Brainy hadn’t gone on a proper date in almost a month. If they didn’t live in the same apartment, she would barely see her boyfriend.

After Nia had taken a quick shower (which did nothing to wake her up) and gotten dressed, she grabbed her keys and headed out the door. She had been skipping breakfast lately, a fact she kept from Brainy and anyone else who might ask. Nia usually loved food, but she had just been too tired and busy to eat in the mornings. And occasionally at lunch, too. 

Nia, surprisingly, wasn’t the first one at work in the mornings. She didn’t know when Andrea woke up, but the woman was always there, in her office, poised and put together and made up, when Nia arrived at 6:30. Today, she waved Nia into her office.

“I’ve noticed that you’ve been getting some of you work in ahead of schedule,” Andrea said, barely looking at Nia as she clicked away at her computer. “It’s to be expected, considering how early you get here every morning.”

Andrea finally did glance up, smiling a little at Nia. “I appreciate your devotion to this company,” she said, and Nia realized that was the first compliment she had ever gotten from her boss, other than not being fired when Andrea took over. “And, since you’re here so much, I don’t want you to be bored. I’ve added a few various reports that others haven’t had time for to your schedule. The files are right over their on the side desk; please take them on your way out.”

Nia’s mouth fell open and she felt her stomach plummet. She was already do _so much_. In fact, she was pretty much doing more than she could do. And now... Andrea wanted her to do _more_? 

Nia felt sick. 

Andrea looked up again. “Is something the problem?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “Are you not able to handle it?”

Nia swallowed, trying to get her voice to work. “It’s fine,” she whispered after a second, before turning and quickly walking out of Andrea’s office, just remembering to grab the files before she left entirely. 

Nia sat down at her desk, and got to work. As she wrote and fact-checked and researched, the office slowly filled up with people. Kara, bless her, brought Nia a cup of coffee as she came in and headed to her office. Nia drained the mug in the next few minutes, wondering how she had managed to last out the morning this long without any caffeine. 

About an hour and a half later, CatCo was buzzing. Nia rubbed her eyes, the screen before her beginning to get bleary. Maybe it was time for a short water break. 

As she stood up, Nia felt a weird fluttering in her chest. Her breath caught and the world around her spun. As she fought the sudden nausea in her stomach, Nia heard someone calling her name. It was then that she realized that the floor was getting closer, and closer, until-

**W / T \ Y**

“Get her some water.”

“Guys, I think she’s waking up.”

“Has someone called her boyfriend yet?”

“Give her some air.”

“Should we be calling a doctor?”

“Guys, I _seriously_ think she’s awake.”

Nia blinked her eyes open blearily. Her head was pounding and she found that she was laying on the squeaky leather couch in Andrea’s office. There was a small crowd huddled around her, the faces of various coworkers watching her nervously. 

Kara’s features swam into view. “Hey, Nia,” she said gently, putting her hand on Nia’s shoulder. “How do you feel?”

Nia blinked again, trying to clear her head as she slowly pushed herself upright. The room tilted for a second and she shut her eyes, taking a slow breath. “What happened?” she managed.

“You passed out,” the man who sat across from her at work, Dan, spoke up. “Just stood up and then collapsed.”

Nia let out a soft groan and let her head fall against the couch. “I don’t know what happened,” she mumbled. “I was fine and then... I wasn’t.”

Andrea pushed her way through the crowd, watching Nia with an unreadable expression. Nia gulped, staring up at her. She wasn’t sure whether to apologize or defend herself. 

“Take the week off,” Andrea said finally, her face softening a little. “You’re clearly overworked. I should have known better to ask you to do those extra reports.”

Kara looked at Nia sympathetically as the other woman let out a relieved breath and her shoulders drop. “Thank you,” she murmured, suddenly feeling beyond drained. “Kara, can you please call Brainy and ask him to pick me up? I really just want to go home.”

“Of course,” Kara murmured, rubbing her arm again and reaching for her phone. The crowd of coworkers around Nia filtered away and she shut her eyes again, trying to stem her headache. 

Distantly, she heard Kara on the phone. “Hey, Brainy. No, no, it’s... Nia. Relax, she’s fine. Well, I mean... she’ll _be_ fine. She collapsed. Whoa! Calm down. No. No, I swear! Can you come pick her up, please? She wants to go home. Yeah, she’s at CatCo. Thank you. Mhm. Okay, see you soon.”

Kara hung up and Nia heard her footsteps coming closer. “He’s coming,” she said softly. “And I’m sorry if he freaks out, I don’t think I softened the blow very much.”

Nia snorted and opened her eyes a little. “Thank you,” she murmured.

Kara glanced over her shoulder at Andrea, who was at her desk pretending that they weren’t there, and moved a little closer. “Nia.... if being Dreamer is getting to be too much....”

“No!” Nia said sharply, sitting up. Her head throbbed and she grit her teeth against the pain. “No. I- I love being Dreamer. I just... I need to cut back a little. On everything.”

“I’ve been there,” Kara said. “When I started being... you know, I was crazy overwhelmed and overworked. But you have us, okay? We’re you’re family. I will do anything I can to help you, and I know that Brainy and Alex and J’onn and even Kelly would do the same.”

Nia nodded, suddenly teary. “Thank you,” she murmured again, letting out a shaky breath. “I really do appreciate that.”

Brainy arrived a few minutes later, panting and frazzled. He rushed into Andrea’s office and fell to his knees beside the couch Nia was resting on, pulling her into a hug. Nia buried her face into his neck, eyes stinging at the familiar feeling of his warmth and his arms tight around her back. 

Brainy pulled back all too soon, brushing his hand across her face to cup her jaw. “You burnt out,” he murmured, upset. “I should have seen this coming and done something to prevent it.”

Nia shook her head. “It wasn’t your fault,” she replied, covering his hand with hers. She was just so _tired_ , and all she wanted was for this day to be over. “I should have known to slow down. I’ve never been good at that.”

“No, you haven’t,” Brainy agreed, but his tone was more fond than accusatory. “Would you like for me to bring you home now?”

“Yes,” Nia breathed, eyes flickering shut at the relief just the idea of going home and curling up in bed for awhile brought. “Please.”

Brainy nodded and stood up, before promptly scooping Nia up off the couch and into his arms, bridal style. Nia’s eyes flew open, incredulous. “Um... Brainy? What’re you doing...?”

“Bringing you home,” Brainy said sedately, hoisting her a little farther up in his arms.

“Not gonna lie... I would not have thought you were strong enough to pick me up,” Nia told him with a faint snort, trying to ignore the fact that Andrea (and everyone else on the floor within the appropriate distance) was openly staring at the two of them.

Brainy sent her an affronted glance. “Of course I am,” he huffed. “I have had to carry many people out of the line of fire in this fashion. Do not forget that I was a superhero for many years before-”

“Shhh!” Nia hissed, clamping her hand over his mouth. “Do you want the entirety of CatCo knowing that we fight crime?”

Brainy looked chagrined. “No, I do not,” he said, starting to walk out of Andrea’s office.

Nia squirmed awkwardly. “Really, Brainy, I can walk,” she told him. “I’m not an invalid.”

“Nia, you fainted,” Brainy reminded her matter-of-factly. “You are not... an _invalid_ , but you are still... unwell. I simply cannot risk you collapsing again. What if you had hit your head? You could have obtained a concussion, or worse.”

Nia pulled a face and then smiled uncomfortably as she made awkward eye contact with one of her coworkers. “ _I understand that_ ,” she muttered into Brainy’s ear. “But this just looks... really weird, okay? You’re going to make it a big deal and I’m embarrassed enough as it is.”

“Fine,” Brainy said, rolling his eyes and promptly putting her down on her feet. He began to stride towards the elevator, leaving Nia standing suddenly on her own. “Have it your way.”

Nia groaned quickly and hurried to keep up with him. She was still shaky, and maybe her heart was elevating a little faster than normal as she picked up her pace, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t walk perfectly fine. 

But then, just as she reached the elevator, her heart did that weird little fluttery thing it had an hour ago. Nia sucked in a breath and stumbled, head swimming. “Brainy-” she managed, grasping out for him.

His arm was suddenly in reach and Brainy smoothly kept her upright and tugged her into the now-open elevator at the same time. The doors slid shut but Brainy made no move to press the button for their floor, letting Nia regain composure in relative privacy.

“Nia,” he said softly, making her glance up. “When... was the last time you... ate?”

Nia’s cheeks darkened and she felt guilty, though she wasn’t sure exactly why. “Does it matter?” she mumbled, trying to avoid answering.

“Yes,” Brainy replied simply, and waited.

“It was.. probably...” Nia tried to remember. She hadn’t had breakfast, that she knew for sure, but dinner last night..? “I don’t know. Maybe eight o’clock? I had some cereal as an evening snack after dinner.”

Brainy raised his eyebrow. “Which means that you haven’t eaten in approximately 14 hours. Considering your high metabolism and usual food-filled diet, your dizziness is easily explained.”

“Stop that,” Nia said, glaring over at him. “Stop making me out to be your- your- your medical subject. I’m your girlfriend, Brainy!”

Brainy looked away and swallowed. “I am... aware of that fact,” he said softly. “In case you hadn’t... picked up on it, before... I have the tendency to hide behind logic and fact when I am feeling... overwhelmed. When you- when you receive an unexpected call that the woman you love has _collapsed_ , you don’t know what to think. I am... _scared_ for you, Nia. And I am also kicking myself that I didn’t pay more attention and take... better care of you. That’s my job. And I... failed.”

“You didn’t fail,” Nia said with a sigh, somehow feeling both uncomfortably guilty and overwhelmingly affectionate all at once. She reached out and rubbed at Brainy’s arm, trying to get him to look at her. “All of this... it’s no ones fault. Except maybe mine. But you know what? I’m not even going to blame me, because all I did was try to be a full time superhero _and_ a full time reporter. It’s not my fault I need more than 4 hours of sleep every night.”

Brainy snorted softly, but he still looked troubled. “From now on,” he said. “You are not allowed to go on patrol unless you get seven hours _or more_ of rest at night. Or if we really need you.”

“Okay, mom,” Nia said, rolling her eyes. 

Brainy looked over at her, a strange expression on his face. “I am not-”

“It was a joke,” Nia explained quickly, cheeks going red as she realized he thought she had literally just called him her mom. “Because you’re being protective and basically giving me a curfew.”

Brainy huffed slightly, muttering something under his breath in an affronted tone. Nia just smiled at him.

Then she realized that they were still standing in the elevator and neither of them had even pressed the button for the first floor. She giggled a little and gestured at the control panel. “Are we going to... go anytime soon?”

“Hm?” Brainy glanced up and followed her gaze. “Oh! Ah, yes.” He took a quick step forward and pressed his finger into the button, jolting the elevator into movement. “I apologize, I.... lost track of where we were.”

Nia’s giggling faded to a faint smile and she leaned comfortably against Brainy’s side as they road the elevator down. 

The two of them made it back to Nia’s apartment without further incident on Nia’s side. Once Brainy had unlocked the door, he ordered Nia to the couch with a stern word and walked off into the kitchen. Nia grabbed a fleece from a basket in the corner and curled up with it, smiling when she found that it smelled like Brainy. 

“Here,” Brainy said, coming into the living room a few minutes later. “You’re favorite tea. I am making some mac n cheese as we speak.”

Nia’s stomach growled. The lack of appetite that had matched her lack of sleep was easing up now that she was home and comfortable. “Thank you,” she murmured, taking the tea and letting the warmth seep into her hands before it got to be too much and she had to hold the through her blanket.

Brainy paused before he went back into the kitchen, brushing her hair back from her face and look down at her tenderly. “You promise that you’ll rest for a few days?” he said softly. “I will look after you.”

“You’re going to take time off from work?” Nia asked, surprised. “Brainy, you _never_ take days off.”

“I do, I-” Brainy paused and frowned. “You are correct. I never take days off. Well, I suppose there is a first time for everything.”

Nia laughed a little, her breath rippling the liquid in her mug. “That’ll be nice,” she said. “Like a staycation.”

“I have heard about those,” Brainy replied thoughtfully, sitting down at the edge of the couch next to Nia. “I don’t believe I fully understood the.... _allure_ until now.”

“We can sleep in....” Nia mused, sighing happily. “Watch TV.... cuddle... no work, or superhero-ing, or late nights or early mornings just you, and me, at home.”

Brainy grinned, his cheeks coloring a little. “In any other situation, I would be worried about boredom,” he admitted, before looking at her through slightly squinted eyes. “I don’t think that... that will be a problem, in this case.”

Nia snorted, slinging her legs across his lap so the backs of her knees rested on his thighs. “Well good, we couldn’t have you being bored.”

He stuck his tongue out at her in an uncharacteristically childish gesture and pushed her legs off his lap. “The mac n cheese requires my attention,” he explained when Nia pouted and made a small noise of discontentment. “I will return.”

She grinned at him as he walked past and back into the kitchen, and then curled up on the couch again. If any luck, Brainy would even agree to watch a romcom with her before her break time was over.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Nia gets fed up with the way the DEO is using Brainy and how it keeps leading to him getting injured.
> 
> Spoilers: Very direct references to 5x05, 5x06 and 5x07 (conveniently all the episodes that Brainia wasn’t in! So you can consider them compensation ;) Also warning, there’s some Alex bashing so like.... yeah. It’s all motivated and I have nothing against her character, I just want y’all to know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heh... this was written back in the day when there was the record longest string of episodes without Brainia and every Sunday night after the show I'd sit and cry in the bathroom and LOOK AT US NOW IT'S BEEN MONTHS SOOOOO... 
> 
> (and, of course, after Season 6 it'll be forever :(((((( )

The first time it happened, Nia was concerned but brushed it off. 

She found Brainy on the couch after she came home from work and collapsed onto the cushion next to him. They’d been able to smooth over a lot of the lumps in their relationship since their fallout a couple weeks ago, and things had honestly been nicer than ever. 

“Hello,” Brainy greeted, turning to her with a smile. “Long day?”

“Mm, not too bad,” Nia shrugged. She leaned up and kissed him, hands drifting to cover his.

To her surprised, Brainy drew in a sharp inhale and jerked away. Nia stared at him in confusion. “Brainy? Did I... is everything okay?”

“Yes, yes,” Brainy brushed her off immediately, looking up at her with a tight smile. “It was- it was nothing. The kiss was very nice, thank you.”

Nia raised her eyebrow. “Hey, remember that conversation we had at the alien bar less than two weeks ago? Where you said you’d let me help you if something was up?”

“Well, I didn’t _strictly_ -”

“Brainy.”

“Alright, alright,” Brainy huffed. He pushed up his sleeves a little and Nia gasped, dipping forward to investigate. She found the spots right in front of his wrist-bone were rubbed raw, marks that would indicate...

“Brainy?” Nia asked, straightening. “Were you in... handcuffs?”

Brainy let out a sigh, leaning back against the couch and letting his sleeves fall down again. “It is really not what it looks like,” he told her.

“So you were or weren’t in handcuffs?”

“Alright,” Brainy amended. “Maybe it _is_ what it looks like.” He pulled a face. “Do you remember that spider-being that we defeated with Supergirl not too long ago? Well, Director Danvers and Kara had need to interrogate it, so I took the being on and let it speak through me. To protect themselves, Alex and Kara had me wear the power dampening cuffs the DEO made for all alien captives.”

“Oh.” Nia felt relieved. “And here I was worrying that someone had kidnapped you this afternoon and no one told me about it or something. Jeez, how tight were those cuffs to make your wrists like that?”

“They were.... not _that_ tight,” Brainy answered, shifting a little on the couch. “My, uh.... _invaded_ consciousness attempted to get out of the cuffs.” He frowned deeply. “I am fairly certain I chipped a tooth, though I am not quite sure _how_.”

Nia giggled despite herself. “Might have to ask Alex about that,” she recommended. “You must have been really tugging at those cuffs.”

“Oh, I was,” Brainy agreed vehemently. “But... the, uh, real damage happened _after_ the spider left my consciousness. I must have said something to upset Supergirl or Director Danvers, because when I came to myself again they were both gone.”

Nia felt her earlier sense of something being not quite right settling back over her. She sat back and waited.

“They, well.... they forgot about me, I suppose,” Brainy said, pulling a face. “For... an hour and a half.”

“A- they _what_?!” Nia cried, bolting upright and staring at him in shock. “They just left you in your handcuffs for an hour and a half? What if something had happened? What if the- the spider thing had taken you over or something?”

“It would not have gotten the better of me,” Brainy huffed. “But I was.... eager to get out of the cuffs. I do not appreciate the feeling of my powers being dampened. It is... unpleasant, to say the least. There was some struggling, on my account. Which lead to this.” He gestured to his wrists and Nia sat back, her blood still boiling. He caught sight of her expression and put his hand on her arm. “Please do not be to angry with them, Nia. They both have a lot on their minds.”

“Yeah, I know...” Nia murmured, her anger lessening slightly at his gentle touch. “I just- I don’t like the idea of you being forgotten about like that. They’re your family. If anything, they should have been concerned about how having that- that _thing_ inside your brain would affect you!” She peered at him suddenly. “It.... _didn’t_ affect you, right? You’re all good?”

“I am all good,” Brainy agreed, smiling softly at her. “Thank you for your concern.”

He gave her arm a squeeze and let his hand drop before getting to his feet. “And now. Dinner! I shall make something delicious. How does... _pasta_ sound?” 

Nia snorted with laughter and stretched out on the couch, tilting her head lazily back on the cushioned arm. “Pasta sounds great.”

**W / T \ Y**

Nia had almost forgotten about the last incident by the time the next one rolled around. She was home before Brainy, which was rare in itself, and set about gathering things for dinner. 

Brainy walked in a few minutes later, letting the door fall softly closed behind him and then stopping to stand just outside the entry hall, blinking around the room like he was looking for something.

“Brainy?” Nia asked, amused. “You alright?”

He glanced over at her in surprise, like he hadn’t realized she was there, and Nia gasped a little. There was a dark bruise stretching from the bridge up his nose all the way to his eye. “Hm?”

“Are you alright?” Nia asked again, but the amusement was gone from her voice.

“Yes...” Brainy said slowly, striding into the kitchen. “I apologize, Nia. My brain is a bit....” He searched for the word with his fingers spiraling in the air for a second. “Frazzled.”

“Does it have anything to do with that giant bruise on your face?” Nia asked with a raised eyebrow, turning towards the cupboards. Breakfast-for-dinner was always a good choice for frazzled brains, so she chose a pancake mix and got to work. 

“The- hm?” Brainy reached up and tentatively prodded at his nose. He winced and quickly lowered his hand. “Oh, no. That is from when Director Danvers punched me.”

The fridge door Nia had just open fell close with a bang. “She _what_?” Nia demanded, turning around to face her boyfriend incredulously.

“She punched me,” Brainy repeated, then frowned. “Apologies... which ‘what’ was that? I believe I misinterpreted it.”

Nia turned back to the fridge and got a carton of eggs, trying to school her features. She was angry, but she really didn’t need Brainy to see that, and she knew that without any work he could read her like a string of code. 

Apparently her feature-schooling didn’t work, because the first words out of Brainy’s mouth when she turned around were, “You’re upset.”

Nia set the eggs down on the counter with a thump. “Great deduction, Sherlock,” she said harshly, before taking a deep breath and trying to calm down. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap.”

“It is alright,” Brainy said cautiously, tilting forward to try and see her face. He reached out and brushed her hair behind her ear and a tiny smile quirked Nia’s lips. “Taking anger out on others is a normal psychological defense mechanism called ‘displacement’. You use it commonly.”

Nia pulled a face. “Oh I do, do I?” she asked, shaking her head as she pulled away from him and went to get the oil for her pancakes. “Well, anyway. Yes, I’m upset, because I don’t like hearing that my boyfriend got punched in the face by his boss. I mean, can you imagine if Andrea suddenly hit me? How you would feel?”

Brainy’s face darkened. “She would- I would not-” He let out a quick breath. “I would not let her.”

Nia smiled faintly, returning to the table with the oil. She gently bumped him aside so she could grab a measuring cup and he moved obediently out of the way. “See? It makes you angry just to think about it.”

“Yes, but...” Brainy trailed off, frowning. “Alex is my friend. _Your_ friend. And she had just cause to knock me out!”

“She knocked you out?!” Nia cried, putting every attempt to make these stupid pancakes down and turning to face him fully. “Brainy, that is _very_ different than just punching you! That qualifies as assault! I mean they both do but that’s even worse.”

“My mind had been overtaken by a force of do-no-harm,” Brainy explained sternly. “Which is why it is so, as I said, ‘frazzled‘ this evening. Alex was holding a gun and simply trying to defend herself, and the impulses in my brain forced me to disarm her so that she would, indeed, do no harm. She was forced to knock me out so that she could continue to fight.”

Alright, the explanation was some comfort. Nia allowed a small nod. “Okay, fine,” she sighed. “And afterward? She apologized?”

“No, she did not-” Brainy broke off as he seemed to realize that he might be straying Alex back into his girlfriend’s not-so-good graces. “She was very concerned with the fact that Rip Roar had just been absconded from DEO prison, though!”

Nia tilted her head and looked at Brainy, feeling suddenly sad. “You really don’t think you deserve it, do you?” she asked him gently. “You don’t think you deserve people making sure you’re okay and that you don’t get hurt. You don’t think you deserve being the priority.”

“I am not the priority,” Brainy agreed. “Saving the world is the priority.”

“You’re my priority,” Nia whispered, stepping forward and placing her hands on top of his. “And I think you should be others, sometimes, too. At least enough to make sure you’re okay after you’ve been knocked out, or to give you an ice pack and an apology.”

Brainy’s gaze dipped. “I am sure that Director Danvers had her reasons,” he mumbled. 

Nia suddenly felt guilty. It was clear that this kind of thing hadn’t been bothering Brainy, at least not enough for him to notice, until she brought it up. “Yeah,” she agreed, deciding not to push the subject anymore. “You’re right. I’m sure she does.”

**W / T \ Y**

The third time something happened was just enough worse that it almost sent Nia over the edge. She was really late coming home from work, almost two hours overdue, and was expecting to walk into her apartment and be greeted by a comforting hug from Brainy, a little gentle scolding about pushing herself too hard, and some reheated dinner.

Instead, she found Brainy pacing in quick circles around the living/kitchen area, muttering to himself. 

After everything that had happened lately, Nia was immediately concerned. Especially because, not three hours ago, Brainy had texted her to let her know that he and Alex had been involved in an explosion. He had said he was fine, but he tended to do that even when he wasn’t.

“Brainy?” Nia asked, walked over towards him. She couldn’t resist hugging him when he stopped moving, and he hugged her back, nestling his face in her shoulder. “Are you sure you’re okay?” Nia murmured as she rested her cheek on his chest. 

“Yes, I am....” Brainy trailed off. “I had not expected you so early!”

Nia lifted her head and raised an eyebrow. “Uh... I usually get home at six and it’s almost eight-thirty,” she said, smiling a little confusedly. 

“Yes...” Brainy frowned. “Yes, of course you do. I apologize, I.... forgot.”

That in itself was alarming. Brainy wasn’t one for forgetting things very often. 

“Dinner!” he cried suddenly, marching over to the cupboards. “I will make stir-fry.”

“Stir-fry?” Nia repeated, laughing a little even as her stomach growled at the thought of food. “That’s awfully gourmet for us.”

“Is it?” Brainy frowned again, then busied himself with collecting the ingredients from various cupboards and the fridge. “Hm.”

Frowning a little herself, Nia sat down on a barstool and rested her chin on her palm to watching him work. A few minutes later, Brainy had a large chopping knife in his hand and was slicing through a long carrot. His eyes suddenly became distant, drifting away from his work, and Nia was quickly alert. “Brainy, watch-”

Too late. Brainy let out a sharp gasp of pain as the knife slid into his skin and cut a deep slit in his finger. 

“Oh my God,” Nia muttered, leaping to her feet and running around the side of the table as blood welled in the alarmingly deep cut. Brainy was quick to move over to the skin, breathing coming very sharp and fast as he gripped his wrist with his other hand. 

Nia hurried to grab a cloth from the drawer. She wet it so that it would be less uncomfortable on Brainy’s finger and then quickly wrapped it around the bloody spot. Brainy gritted his teeth at the contact and she saw tears leaking from the corners of his eyes.

“Hey,” Nia whispered, reaching up to rub his back. “Try and keep your finger elevated so the blood will drain, okay?”

“I am currently cutting off circulation to my hand to reduce blood-flow,” Brainy informed her, good hand still tight around the opposite wrist.

“Alright,” Nia agreed, though she had sudden flashes of Brainy somehow injuring his hand so much he could never use it again. She shuddered a little. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that. “While you’re doing that, do you want to fill me in on what just happened?”

Brainy let out a sigh and walked slowly around the table so he could take a seat on a barstool. He rested his elbow on the countertop, letting it help him keep his hand in the air. “When the explosion happened today, I.... _was_ injured,” he said, bracing himself for Nia’s reaction.

Her eyes widened. “Why didn’t you say something?” she asked, putting her hand on his knee and looking him over in concern.

“Because it was an easily remedied situation,” Brainy told her. “The wound on my forehead cracked one of my inhibiters. I could easily fix the issue, visually, which is what Director Danvers wanted. I had to be perfect, as always, and so I was.”

“ ‘Perfect, as always’, huh?” Nia repeated, smiling wryly. 

“Indeed,” Brainy agreed, not catching her teasing tone. “Director Danvers needs me to be at the top of my game, all the time. And it was good that I was, because not too long after the explosion she collapsed and I had to bring her to the DEO.”

“So you _are_ okay?” Nia asked, a little lost. “You fixed your inhibitor?”

“No...” Brainy hedged, shifting on the barstool. “Yes, I am ‘okay’, as you say. No, I did not fix my inhibitor.” His image inducer flickered off and instead of three glowing orbs on his blue forehead there were suddenly two, and one darkened, cracked one. “But you see, without this inhibitor I can see so _very_ much more. I was able to find the location of Leviathan’s home base, or at least, where I _thought_ was the location. Unfortunately, the inhibitor is also giving me some... lapses in cognitive ability. I cannot seem to readily remember simple things, like what time you get home or our usual dining habits.”

Nia tilted her head slightly. “So if you’re not okay, why did you tell Alex that you were good? You should get checked out by someone, to make sure this whole broken inhibitor thing doesn’t have any lasting effects. Or at least talk to Lena so she can help you fix it.”

Brainy glanced down at his hands. “As I said before, Director Danvers needs me at the top of my game,” he said quietly. “I do not need _help_. The lack of inhibitor, if anything, has increased by ability to aid the DEO.”

“Yes, but what about its ability to aid _you_?” Nia pressed, laying her hand on his knee. “Brainy, you almost just cut your finger off because you lost your focus, and you were just making _dinner_. What else, even worse, could happen if you don’t look into getting this fixed? Just tell someone next time. Please. _I_ wouldn’t have even known something was wrong until you told me.”

Brainy’s face creased with displeasure. “Fine,” he agreed after a moment. “I will... tell... someone.”

His tone wasn’t exactly what Nia had been looking for, but she figured it was better than nothing. As she laid in bed that night, Brainy beside her with finger still wrapped, though they had managed to stop the bleeding, Nia took a second to wonder exactly went through her boyfriend’s head during moments like that afternoon. Had he really not trusted Alex, or anyone at the DEO, enough to tell them there was something wrong?

Nia let out a small sigh and turned on her side, facing Brainy. His face was relaxed, eyes moving underneath his eyelids. He still hadn’t turned his image inducer back on, and his white-blue hair caught the moonlight coming in through a split in the curtains. Sleeping, he was at his most peaceful, most vulnerable. 

He only slept in front of her.

Nia reached over and brushed her fingers across Brainy‘s cheek. He murmured a little, but didn’t open his eyes, and so she withdrew her hand to try and get some sleep.

**W / T \ Y**

Tonight was the last straw.

Nia knew that a lot had gone down that afternoon with Rama Kahn and Lena, but what she hadn’t expected was to get home to find Brainy curled up on the couch. 

Nia dropped her bag and rushed towards him, heedless of getting her shoes on the carpet. “Brainy,” she gasped, dropping to her knees in front of the couch. “What happened? Are you hurt?”

Brainy sniffled wetly. “I am unharmed,” he mumbled, and it was then Nia noticed the redness around his eyes and the tear tracks on his cheeks.

“But you’re not okay,” she murmured, putting her arm around him as best she could in their awkward position. “Talk to me. What happened?”

Brainy sniffed again and sat up slowly, her hair falling limply into his face. Nia pushed herself up to sit beside him, so close their legs were pressed together. “What happened?” she repeated, just wanting to hold him but needing to know what was wrong.

“Today was... a bad day,” Brainy murmured, his gaze on his hands. “Lena... she betrayed us. She betrayed... _me_. I thought we were _friends_.”

Nia felt her heart clench. When Kara had come back to CatCo (where Nia had been stuck working on articles to keep Andrea off her back and trying to keep an eye on William even though Kara had told her he wasn’t doing anything wrong) she had tearfully filled Nia in on everything Lena related. Nia had been shocked. She and Lena had never been _close_ , exactly, but they were still friends. And she knew how tight the other woman was with Brainy, even on a strictly professional, smart-brain level. 

“Oh honey, I know,” Nia whispered, reaching forward to cover his hands with hers. “I’m so sorry.”

“It is... more than that,” Brainy murmured, still not looking at her. “Alex, she- she forced me to use Supergirl’s peace offering to- to _track_ Lena’s location. Alex could not have done it without me. And then she used the location to aim a cannon at her. If we had- had fired it would have been my _fault_.”

Nia’s eyebrows crunched together. “Wait. So you didn’t want to find Lena?”

“I did not want to hurt her!” Brainy cried, suddenly meeting her gaze. His eyes welled with tears. “I did not- she was - _is_ \- my _friend_ , Nia. If we had fired those cannons, and we- _Director Danvers_ \- would have if Lena hadn’t surrendered, she would have been _killed_. I cannot- I could not-” His voice broke. “I did not wish to hurt her. I tried to- to _explain_ this to Director Danvers but she was set on not letting our emotions get in the way of saving the world. She told me that finding Lena was my duty as an agent of the DEO and that, to uphold my position, I would have to go through with it.”

Nia felt her breath coming in short pants. She was angry. She had been angry for awhile, but this.... 

“Nia?” Brainy asked, his eyes still damp as she pulled her hands back and got to her feet. “Where are you going?”

For a moment, as she looked down at her boyfriend gazing up at her, Nia’s fury diminished a little. But then a tear rolled down Brainy’s cheek and she felt her resolve strengthen again. She was _sick_ of this. Sick of coming home to Brainy being injured, abused, misused, treated like he wasn’t the important, deserving, _person_ he was. 

“I’ll be back, alright?” Nia told him, trying to keep her voice gentle. She cupped Brainy’s face in her hands and pressed her lips to his for a moment, tasting the salt on his skin. Then she pulled back and headed for the door.

Alex was still at the DEO. If Nia had been in any other state of mind, she would have felt a surge of pity for the other woman, who had been working hard all day and still wasn’t able to go home. 

But memories of the cuts on Brainy’s wrists, the bruise on his face, the deep wound on his finger from the knife and those _tears_ kept Nia striding towards Alex, her face hardened with anger.

“Nia?” Alex said in surprise, looking up when Nia got close enough. “What’re you-?”

“We need to _talk_ ,” Nia spat out, her voice deathly calm. “About Brainy.”

“About Brainy?” Alex repeated, her confusion evident. “Is everything okay? Is _he_ okay?”

“No,” Nia replied icily. “He’s not okay.”

She turned and stalked into the nearest empty room, and after a moment Alex hurried after her. As soon as Alex had shut the door behind them, Nia exploded.

“ _How can you be so cruel_?!” she yelled. Alex, shocked, took a step back. “I have had to watch for _weeks_ as Brainy came back with- with injuries and _abandonment_ issues and tonight he was _on the couch in tears, because you made him use Kara to find Lena so you could kill her_!”

Alex’s mouth dropped open. “Injuries?” she managed. “Abandonment issues? Nia, what the heck are you talking about?”

Nia dragged in a harsh breath. “Two weeks ago,” she said, glaring at Alex. “He had these- these _cuts_ on his wrist because he took on this spider-thing and you left him locked up for an _hour and a half_ after you were finished interrogating it. Then, a week later, you _punched him in the face_ , and didn’t even apologize and he came home with this giant- stinking- _bruise_ all across his nose!”

“It was-”

“It was because he’d been taken over. I _don’t care_ ,” Nia snapped. She was on a roll now, and it felt _incredibly_ nice to get this all off of her chest. “Did you get him an ice pack? No. Did you apologize to him? No. And don’t even get me started on the whole explosion thing!”

“He said he was okay!” Alex cried. Her cheeks were red, but Nia didn’t know if it was with shame or anger. “He taped his forehead and the cut disappeared and he was _fine_.”

“ _NO HE WASN’T_!” Nia yelled. “ _HE JUST DIDN’T TELL YOU BECAUSE HE KNEW YOU WOULDN’T CARE_!”

Alex fell into a chair and silence descended on the room.

“I’m sorry,” Nia said after a moment, her voice much quieter. Her words had released all of the resentment she’d bottled up towards Alex over the past few weeks, and now that it was gone she felt a little guilty. “But do you know how hard it was for me to get home tonight and find Brainy laying on the couch and crying because you made him track Lena? Or to watch his broken inhibitor cause him to lose his focus so much that he almost cut his finger off chopping up _carrots_?”

Alex’s mouth opened a little. “I didn’t-” she tried. “I didn’t _know_ , Nia. You have to believe me; if I’d- if I’d known something was wrong I never would have- I never-”

Nia stood up. “Okay,” she said. “Prove it. _Stop hurting him._ Physically, emotionally... whatever. Just _stop_. And in return, I’ll talk to him about telling you when there’s something wrong, or when you’re making him do something he doesn’t like.”

“Okay,” Alex murmured weakly. She stared after Nia as she strode towards the door. “Nia, I- I really _am_ sorry. I care about Brainy like a brother. I just- he- he’s _Brainy_.”

Nia hated when people said stuff like that. She gave Alex one final glare. “Yeah. He’s Brainy. Which means that, if anything, he deserves _more_ than the average person. He’s already struggling with himself, and I have to remind him _every day_ that he is worth it. Just... keep that in mind the next time you excuse your behavior because ‘it’s Brainy’.”

Alex opened her mouth to reply, but Nia was already out the door and shutting it firmly (and maybe a little more loudly than necessary) behind her.

**W / T \ Y**

When Nia got back home, Brainy had made some waffles and was eating them with peanut butter, staring blankly at the wall. She walked up behind him and pressed a kiss to his temple. “How’re you doing?”

“Off of the duration of your absence and the expression you were wearing when you left, I calculated a 83% chance that you went to the DEO to confront Alex,” Brainy said, without answering the question. “Please tell me did not.”

“I did,” Nia said, steeling herself. “I don’t care how you feel about the matter. How she treated you was wrong and not okay, and she was just going to keep doing it unless someone told her that. You certainly weren’t going to, so I did.”

Brainy ducked his head and groaned, but when his chin lifted again he was smiling, just a little. “Thank you,” he said, sincerely. “But really, Nia. Don’t do that again.”

“Well.” NIa pulled up a seat next to him and stole a piece off of his waffle. “Hopefully, I won’t have to.”


	20. Basically Dying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Brainy gets sick. Need I say more?
> 
> Spoilers: Nope. You can pretend I put something clever in here, though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Awww my first Brainia sickfic. This thing ended up being SO LONG holy toleeto.

Brainy: _‘Nia’_

Brainy: _‘Nia Nal’_

Brainy: _‘Nia I think I’m dying’_

Brainy: _‘Niaaaaa’_

Nia let out a grunt of annoyance and glared down at her phone, which had now pinged with a text alert four times in the last minute. She was about to throw on Do-Not-Disturb when she caught sight of the content of the texts on her lock screen.

As a general rule, Nia got worried when someone told her they thought they were dying. But this was Brainy. It wasn’t so much that dying for him would be so out there, idea wise (not only was he an alien superhero but he worked at a highly targeted government facility), but if Brainy had _actually_ been dying... he probably wouldn’t have texted her.

And he definitely wouldn’t have put five a’s in her name.

But still. Claiming that he thought he was dying was pretty dramatic, even for Brainy’s standards, and it lead Nia to believe that something was actually wrong. With a sigh, she texted him back.

Nia: _‘What’s wrong?’_

Brainy: _‘I’m dhing’_

Brainy: _‘duing’_

Brainy: _‘DYING see I can’t even type D:’_

Nia raised her eyebrow. As odd as it sounded, Brainy not being able to text was actually a source of concern. Also, the distraught emoji was almost making her feel a little bit sympathetic.

Nia: _‘So you’ve said’_

Nia: _‘Why are you dying?’_

Brainy: _‘I’m sick :(((‘_

Mother hen Nia kicked in almost immediately.

Nia: _‘Aww, babe’_

Nia: _‘Are you home?’_

Brainy: _‘No. At work’_

Nia: _‘You should go home and get some rest’_

There wasn’t a response and Nia shook her head, sighing at her boyfriend’s stubbornness. Well, if he wasn’t home, there wasn’t much she could do for him. Maybe she would bring him some soup at lunch.

**W / T \ Y**

“Something on your phone more interesting than the work you’re doing at the moment, Agent Dox?”

A voice from behind Brainy made him jump a little and quickly shut his phone off like a teenager caught watching YouTube in class. “My apologies, Director Danvers,” he muttered, feeling frustration bubble in his chest. He wanted to be home, in bed, under a pile of blankets. And Nia- he wanted Nia with her cherry-blossom scented hair and her warm, comforting presence. “I didn’t not mean to waste _precious_ DEO time.”

Alex caught the sarcasm in his voice. “Excuse me?”

“ _Excuse me_?” Brainy mimicked before he could stop himself. “What do you even mean by that? Would you like me to repeat what I said? Are you _shocked_ that I would _dare_ to mock the DEO? If you humans could just a little clearer with your words a lot of the miscommunication that goes on would not _happen_.”

“Okay, you are not yourself today,” Alex said, gripping the back of Brainy’s chair and spinning him around to face her. The sudden movement from the chair had caused the room to spin and Brainy took in a few shallow breaths, squeezing his armrest as he fought against sudden nausea. “What’s going on with you?”

Alex frowned as she finally got a good look at him. His eyes were glazed over and everything about him seemed limp, right down to his hair. His face looked like he had just been out in the cold for a few hours, pale except for redness in his cheeks and nose. 

“Hold up,” she said, shaking her head. She had expected maybe a falling out with Nia or some kind of _something_ to be wrong, but not this. “Brainy... are you _sick_?”

Brainy looked around shiftily. He was perfectly comfortable with complaining to Nia about how he was feeling, but she was safe. She took care of him. Alex was his boss. His family, his friend, yes. But also his boss.

“Yes..” Brainy mumbled.

“Why aren’t you home, then?” Alex asked, crossing her arms. She wondered if all techno-organics were this impossible, or if it was just the one in front of her. “You know you have, like, twenty paid sick days to use, right?”

Brainy’s face went even paler. “ _Twenty?_ ” he repeated, horrorstruck. “Sickness in the 21st Century lasts for _twenty days_?!”

Alex frowned, unsure of how he had gotten that from what she’d said. “No...” she replied slowly. “But... over the course of a year a person can get sick more than once...”

“Oh.” Brainy looked relieved. “I see.”

“Go home, Brainy,” Alex told him, softening a little. “You’re not going to do any good here if you’re sick, and I don’t want you infecting the other agents. Okay?”

“Understood.” Brainy got slowly to his feet and swayed a little as the blood drained from his head.

Alex grabbed his arm, watching him warily in case he decided to fall over. “Do you want me to get someone to drive you home?” she asked him. “You’re really not looking great.”

Brainy straightened his spine ever so slightly, struggling to retain a distinguished appearance. “I will manage,” he told Alex cooly, reaching for his jacket. “I shall see you tomorrow, Director Danvers.”

“Stay home if you’re still sick,” Alex told him. “That’s an order.”

**W / T \ Y**

Nia showed up at the DEO with a cup of soup that afternoon during her lunch break. She found Alex doing some work on her tablet, but Brainy was nowhere in sight. Possibilities flashed through her head, attempting to explain his absence. Had he actually been dying and was in the med bay? Or was he passed out in a corridor somewhere with a dangerously high fever? Or even just in the bathroom, throwing up?

“Hi, Nia,” Alex said, offering the other woman a questioning smile as she walked over. “What’re you doing here?”

“I was just bringing Brainy some soup...” Nia said slowly, unsure if Brainy had told Alex he wasn’t feeling well. Knowing him, probably not. “Is he here?”

“No, I sent him home almost two hours ago,” Alex said, before pulling a face. “Come on, he told you he was sick? I basically had to drag it out of him!”

Nia flashed an awkward smile. “Don’t take it too personally,” she said, tucking her hair behind her ear. “He... you know how he is with trusting people. Not to say he doesn’t trust you- he does, with his life. And with mine, too, which is possible saying even more.” She smiled a little. “He just.... vulnerability isn’t really his thing.”

“I know,” Alex said with a sigh. “Well, if you see him, tell him I hope he feels better.”

“Will do,” Nia agreed, walking about out of the DEO. “Thanks, Alex.”

She arrived at her apartment about fifteen minutes later and set the remarkably still-warm soup on the counter. The body of the apartment was empty and quiet, so Nia walked softly into the bedroom. She found the curtains closed and a mound of blankets on the bed that hadn’t been there that morning. Poking out of the blanket burrito was a pale face, dark hair tousled across the pillow. Nia felt her heart melt. She had never actually seen Brainy sleep before; she was always out before him at night and he was up first in the morning. 

Not wanting to wake him up just to say hi, Nia turned and started to creep back out of the bedroom. She made it halfway before a croaky, “Nia?” made her stop and look back around.

Brainy had sat up a little, his gaze bleary. And so Nia experienced another first: Brainy with bedhead. Considering he always slept on his back and perfectly still, his hair looked almost exactly the same when he got up as when he went to bed. Now, not so much.

“Hey, babe,” Nia murmured, crossing back towards the bed and sitting down lightly on the edge of the mattress. “How’re you feeling?”

Brainy sniffled a little and shifted back down to put his head on the pillow, looking at her pitifully with glassy eyes. “I don’t get sick,” he mumbled. “Why am I sick?"

“I don’t know, Brainy,” Nia murmured, brushing his hair back. His forehead was uncomfortably warm and she let her fingertips linger on his skin for a moment. “You have a fever.”

“I’m aware,” Brainy said. “102.4.”

“102- jeez, Brainy, that’s high,” Nia said with a frown. “Have you taken anything for it, yet?”

Brainy shook his head, his large teary eyes still heart-wrenchingly pitiful. Nia bent down and kissed his forehead. “Hang on. I’ll grab you something.”

She walked off into the bathroom and rooted around for the right medicine, before grabbing a glass of water and bringing them back to Brainy’s bedside. As he took the medicine Nia went into the kitchen and fixed them two bowls of soup.

“What’re you doing?” Brainy asked croakily when Nia handed him his soup and got into the other side of the bed with her own bowl. “I don’t want you to get sick.”

“Don’t worry about that, okay?” Nia told him, taking a spoonful of the soup and blowing on it. “I’ll be fine.”

Brainy looked unconvinced, but picked up his bowl anyway. Nia watched his hands shake as he lifted his spoon to his lips, almost spilling the food everywhere. She bit her tongue, resisting the urge to offer to spoon-feed him. He wouldn’t appreciate that.

When they had finished eating, Nia took Brainy’s bowl from him and put them both in the sink. Then she walked back to the bedroom, hovering unhappily in the doorframe. “Are you going to be okay?” she asked, trying to read his face in the dark so he couldn’t lie to her. “If you’re here alone?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Brainy huffed, coughing slightly into his elbow. The phrase would have normally sounded very in-control, but his stuffiness wasn’t doing him any favors. “I will be _fine_ ; it is merely a cold. Return to your work, Nia.”

“Okay...” Nia agreed uncertainly, turning out of the bedroom. She felt wrong leaving her boyfriend at home alone with a fever but she knew that he would probably just spend the afternoon sleeping, anyway.

Nia was just about to put on her coat and head out again when she heard the sound of running feet. A door slammed, and then absolutely awful retching noises began to emanate from the bathroom. Nia cringed and put her coat back on the hanger, heading down the hallway. The bathroom door, as she had expected, was tightly shut, and she rapped her knuckles on it lightly.

“You don’t want to come in here,” Brainy said from inside, his voice sounding rough and strained. “Trust me-”

His voice broke off and more retching filled the air. Nia’s face creased in sympathy and she quietly opened up the bathroom door to let herself in. Brainy was wrapped around the toilet, limp strands of hair falling into his deathly pale face. 

“I told you you don’t want to come in,” Brainy mumbled. His body spasmed again and he coughed up more bile, tears welling up in his eyes.

Nia wasn’t surprised that Brainy was a crier when he was sick. He was a crier when he _wasn’t_ sick. But her heart still twisted a little as she watched him hunch over the toilet, seeming unable to stop throwing up. 

“Oh, honey,” Nia whispered, hurrying over to him as he spat into the toilet, breath rasping in his throat. She knelt down behind him and helped him lean against her, rubbing soft circles on his back. “Just try to breathe, okay?”

Brainy nodded, drawing in a few shaky breaths. Nia wasn’t sure what else she could do, so she just sat there on the floor with him, holding him.

After a couple of minutes, Brainy began to shiver violently. He was soaked through with sweat and on a cold tile floor, and Nia hurried to remedy that. “Do you think you can stand up?” she asked him softly, smoothing his hair back from his forehead. “Move to the bed?”

Brainy nodded again and Nia wrapped an arm around his waist, helping him up to his feet. Brainy swayed a little and swallowed hard, stumbling forward to grip the edge of the sink. “Are you going to be sick again?” Nia asked him, hand on his arm.

Brainy shut his eyes for a moment and breathed tightly through his nose, knuckles turning white. Then he swallowed again and straightened. “No,” he said, voice sounding a little stronger now. “I’m alright.”

“Okay,” Nia replied, taking his arm and helping him the rest of the way to their bedroom. She grabbed him a trashcan, just in case, as he curled up under the many covers again and squeezed his eyes shut. 

Nia stood for a second in front of the bed, watching the shaky rise and fall of his shoulders and the pain that flitted across his face. Finally, she made up her mind and sent a quick text before pulling off her sweatshirt and getting into bed opposite Brainy.

He rolled over, looking at her through half glazed eyes. “What’re you doing? I thought you were going back to work?”

“I can’t leave you like this,” Nia murmured. “Just sleep, okay? I’m going to stay right here.”

Brainy nodded and curled a little closer to her, shifting so his head was pressed into her side. Nia ran her fingers through his hair, watching as his face muscles slowly relaxed and he fell asleep.

**W / T \ Y**

Brainy awoke slowly, his head aching. The pain was almost strong enough to make him try go back to sleep, but he really needed to use the bathroom.

Slowly, Brainy eased the covers off of himself and put his feet on the floor. The bedroom lamp was on, even though his body clock told him it was close to midnight. Nia was sound asleep with a book in her lap, head slumped to the side as she was nearly in a full seated position. 

Brainy stumbled a little when he stood up, the world around him swaying. His brain felt muggy and he struggled to walk in a straight line as he headed to the bathroom. 

When he had finished up, Brainy stood for a second in front of the mirror, resting his weight on the counter. His expression blinked back at him, flushed and blurry. How long had it been since he had taken those pills from Nia? 

Stepping over to the medicine cabinet, Brainy peered inside. Without his usual cognitive capacity, he was immediately overwhelmed with the sheer amount of different pills in front of him. Why did one generally healthy twenty-five year old woman have _this much medicine_?

Brainy knew, deep down, that Nia would want him to wake her up, so he staggered back into the bedroom. “Nia,” he muttered, his voice coming out hoarse both from his illness and the strain throwing up had had on his throat. “Nia?”

Nia startled a little as he put his hand on her arm, gaze shooting wildly over to him. Her face relaxed a little when she saw who was touching her, but then quickly darkened with worry. “Brainy? Are you okay?”

“I- yes,” Brainy replied cautiously, not sure if that was entirely true. “I believe that the medicine you gave me has.... run out. And I am unsure of what to use.”

He prepared himself for the mockery that usually came with him admitting he didn’t know something, but Nia just nodded. “Okay,” she said, pushing back the covers and standing up with a stretch and a smothered yawn. “I’ll go grab you the pills and some water.”

“Thank you,” Brainy murmured genuinely, brushing her arm as she walked by.

Nia smiled at him and walked into the bathroom. She was back a moment later, a frown on her face. “I’m so sorry,” she told Brainy. “I gave you the last two this afternoon and didn’t even realize. Dang it, I _knew_ that bottle felt empty! I’m sorry- I should have checked.”

“It’s not your fault,” Brainy told her firmly, though he felt this body ache at the thought that there wasn’t anything coming to relieve it of its misery. “I will manage.”

“Uh, no way.” Nia wrinkled her nose at him and grabbed at a sweatshirt hanging over the back of a chair. It was Brainy’s, but neither of them minded very much when Nia wore his clothes. “I’m gonna run out to the drug store and pick up another bottle, okay? Along with something for your stomach and some more tissues.”

“Nia.” Brainy pushed himself up onto his elbow. “It’s late. I don’t want you going out at this time.”

“Pfft,” Nia huffed, waving off his concerns as she headed for the door. “I’m Dreamer, Brainy. If some thug or someone picks on me, it’ll be their bad dream, not mine.”

**W / T \ Y**

On the way back from the drugstore, Nia was almost sent tumbling by a sudden flash of dream. Two guys behind her, pulling her into an alleyway-

She broke out of the premonition just in time to regain her balance and not hit the pavement. Immediately, Nia spun and saw the two men from her dream, lurking a couple yards behind her.

She broke into a run. Nia hadn’t been lying to Brainy when she had told him she was confident about her chances against a thug, but it _was_ midnight. She was tired. And she was used to at least having Brainy’s voice in her ear, telling her the best plan of action. Nia might have been a superhero, and a pretty terrific one at that, but she was still new to this.

The first man caught up, grasping Nia’s elbow and abruptly stopping her forward motion. She tried to break away, but his grip was iron. “Give me the bag,” he ordered.

“No,” Nia replied, her voice stony. 

“Let me rephrase that,” the man said as his buddy caught up and ringed Nia on the other side, flicking open a pocket knife. “Give me your bag _and_ your wallet we’ll let you get out of here without ripping that... _adorable_ outfit.” He said the last words more condescendingly, looking over Nia’s body with an eyebrow raised.

Nia lashed out. Blue energy flowed from her fingertips almost before she called for it, tendrils of light wrapping around one of the man’s ankles. With a flick of her wrist the man went flying.

The guy behind her, with the knife, took a surprised step back. “D-Dreamer!” he cried, before charging forward again. Nia punched him across the face as hard as she could, pain shooting through her hand as her knuckles collided with her attackers nose. He stumbled, off balance but not unconscious, and Nia took off running again.

Nia didn’t stop running until she made it back home. Right before darting inside she looked over her shoulder, checking to see if the men had followed her. She didn’t see them, so Nia felt it was safe to hurry into the building and sprint up to her room.

Nia didn’t let herself breathe until she burst through the door of her apartment and locked it shut behind her. Then she felt her legs go wobbly and slid down to sit with her back against the door, drawing in deep breaths through her nose. 

“Nia?” Brainy called, and before she could collect herself and answer him he was hurrying from the bedroom, his face white. 

“Brainy,” Nia breathed. She swallowed back the rest of her panting and got to her feet, holding up the bag. “I get your medicine.”

“Who attacked you?” Brainy demanded. “ _Who_?”

“I’m fine,” Nia told him, not answering his question as she laid the medication out on the kitchen table. “Go back to bed; I’ll be right there.”

“No, I-” Brainy broke off, ducking his head. “My- my illness, it put you in danger. This is why- this is _exactly_ why I don’t tell people when there is something wrong! They go and do things like- like leaving the house at midnight, they-” His voice broke, and when Nia looked over she saw there were tears on his cheeks. He stepped towards her, hands reaching. “Nia if you- if someone had _hurt_ you I don’t know what I would have- I don’t even want to think about it makes me- it makes me s-sick-”

His voice stuttered, and before either of them could do a thing Brainy had bent at the waist and thrown up on the floor. Nothing much came up, but he still staggered back with his hand over his mouth, eyes wide. “I’m so sorry,” he muttered, chest still heaving as his knees buckled.

Nia ran from the table and caught him as he went down, settling them both on the floor. “Don’t apologize,” she murmured, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him tightly into her chest. “I- I should have listened to you about not going out and I will next time, I swear. But- nothing happened, Brainy, nothing that I couldn’t handle. I‘m completely unharmed. And- and don‘t apologize for throwing up, either. You’re sick, and you just got worked up and.... it happens. Do you know how many times I’ve thrown up on someone or something in my life? A lot. Like, a _lot_.”

Brainy let out a heavy breath, and she could feel the dampness of his face against her neck. She gave him one finally squeeze and then pulled them both up, leading Brainy to a chair. She grabbed him his medication and a glass of water, which she put on the table in front of him. “Drink this,” Nia ordered gently. “Even if it comes back up. I haven’t been having you drink anything and I’m really worried you’re going to get dehydrated.”

Brainy nodded, reaching for the glass. “I am able to monitor my levels of hydration, and you are correct, they are low,” he said, taking a small sip of water and then eyeing the pills on the table in front of him. “Do any of these require me to.... consume anything?”

“Uh...” That was a good question. Nia walked back to the table to glance over the bottles. “You should be good... but you might want to try and eat something when your stomach is a little more settled.” She looked at the clock and cringed. “And when it’s _not_ almost one in the morning.”

Brainy nodded and took the pills, before the two of them went back to bed. 

**W / T \ Y**

Nia, even with her excitement at midnight, woke up pretty early. She had fallen asleep in the middle of the afternoon yesterday, and wasn’t used to that many hours of rest. Stretching, Nia looked over to see how Brainy was.

He appeared to be sleeping soundly, eyes shut and mouth hanging a little open. His face was still flushed, but he looked peaceful. Nia lay on her side for awhile, letting her body wake up and watching him rest. He was really so beautiful in his own unique, nerdy way, and it was moments like these that made Nia realize that she honestly loved him more than almost anything in the entire world. 

Once Nia had had enough of her creepy stalker-watching of Brainy, she pulled herself out of bed and went to take a shower. It wouldn’t do her any good to get sick from sleeping in such a germ-infested bed, and besides that, she hadn’t had time to take one last night. 

As Nia was toweling off her hair, wary to use a blowdryer so she didn’t wake up Brainy, the techno-organic himself came wandering out of the bedroom. “Good morning,” he mumbled, sitting down at the table and propping his chin up with his hand.

“Good morning,” Nia echoed, smiling at him and setting down her towel. “How’re you feeling?”

“Like I was hit by a bus,” Brainy replied sedately. “I... believe that is the expression, anyway. It is... surprisingly accurate.”

Even though she felt bad for him, Nia was unable to resist a smirk. “Yeah, that’s the one,” she agreed, walking over to the kitchen counter. “Do you want me to make you some toast?”

Brainy considered, then nodded. “My nutrients levels are beginning to dip rather badly,” he said, as a way of explaining himself. “I have not had a proper meal that I have’t... uh.... _regurgitated_ in over 24 hours.”

“Toast it is,” Nia replied with a smile.

A few minutes later, Nia was setting down a plate of toast, lightly flavored with the butter substitute that she liked to eat. “I’ll give you some water with that, okay?” she told Brainy, heading for a glass. “And you’re probably good to take your next dose of pills.”

Brainy picked up the piece of toast slowly, looking at it like it was the equivalent of his next deadly foe, and took a very small bite. Nia put down the glass and watched him with a faint smile. “Taste okay?”

“Yes.....” Brainy murmured, taking another bite. “Though my apatite is.... not what I’m used to.”

“You’ll get there,” Nia assured him. “I’m going to call into work and tell Andrea that I can’t make it in again. Do you want me to call Alex, too?”

To her surprise, Brainy nodded almost immediately. “Yes, I... believe that I require another day of rest in order to get myself back to one-hundred percent.” 

Nia nodded, putting her hand on top of his. “I think that’s smart,” she told him seriously, knowing that he struggled to do things that, in his opinion, showed signs of weakness. “And I think it’s the right choice.”

Brainy smiled at her, and took another bite of his toast.

**W / T \ Y**

The day was spent lazily. Nia sat with Brainy on the couch and watched Netflix while he dozed on and off. He ate a banana between breakfast and lunch and was even able to stomach some light broth later in the day. 

“You’re lucky,” Nia told him that afternoon when Brainy announced that he would be going to work the next day. “Probably just got some sort of 24-hour bug. Man, when I get sick, it lasts for, like, five days.”

Brainy shuddered at the idea, before looking over at Nia with a soft expression on his face. “Well, then it is a good thing I have, now, 18 unused sick days,” he told her. When Nia quirked her head at him confusedly, he elaborated, “So that I can stay home and take care of you.”

Nia smiled, feeling her chest warm as she reached out and rubbed his arm. “That would be very nice.”

Brainy smiled back at her and settled back against the couch. “Now,” he said, squinting at the television. “I believe that we should use the rest of my time off productively. Stranger Things binge?”

Nia laughed. Things like this, a long with a hundred other reasons, was why she loved Brainy so very much. She curled up against his side and rested a head on his shoulder. “Watch away.”


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Nia introduces the idea of pet names to Brainy. True to form, he goes a little crazy with the idea.
> 
> Spoilers: None. Maybe it's because when I wrote this THERE HADN’T BEEN ANY BRAINIA FOR NEARLY THREE MONTHS COULD THAT BE IT HMMM?!?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHH IT'S BEEN OVER A MONTH I'M SO SORRY I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THIS STORY!!!

They were walking back from a lunch date when Brainy first introduced the issue. “I don’t understand it,” he said abruptly.

Nia stopped talking, because there was no possible way he meant he didn’t understand the concept behind why she liked m+m’s in pancakes more than chocolate chips. She was making herself very clear. “You don’t understand... what?”

“Why you refer to me as your baby,” Brainy elaborated. “Or.... babe, is the word you use, but I believe that it is shorthand.”

Nia was unable to help the laugh that burst from her mouth. “They don’t have pet names in the 31st Century?”

“Pet-” Brainy peered over at her, bewildered. “Pet names? What do companion animals have to do with me and babies and the 31st century?”

Nia shook her head, still giggling. “No, like.... pet names. It’s cute little nicknames you refer to your significant other by. There are a lot of _super_ cringy ones, but I like babe and honey and occasionally sweetheart. I think guys have more options, though, because you can call girls things like gorgeous or snowflake or, like... pretty stuff.”

“Snowflake...” Brainy murmured, considering. “I... require more research on this subject. Can we return to this conversation at a later time?”

“Sure,” Nia agreed with a laugh, knowing how much he hated to be caught not in-the-know when he was talking about something. “I’m sure that a site on the internet can explain it much better. Anyway, m+m’s are obviously superior because...”

And so the conversation was dropped.

Nia had almost forgotten about pet names until about a week later, while she was doing some field work as Dreamer. 

“Dreamer, watch out for two attackers on your left,” Brainy said in her ear.

“Got ‘em,” Nia replied shortly, her focus honed in on seeing the fight before it happened. In seconds, both of the bad guys were groaning on the ground. “All done! What’s next?”

“Good work, beautiful,” Brainy replied oh-so-casually, and Nia’s eyes bulged. Over the coms she heard Alex choke, and Kara start to laugh.

“Did he just-?” Kara asked as she flicked another bad guy in the forehead and sent him crashing into a wall. 

“Yes he did,” Nia answered, unsure of whether to blush or laugh. She decided to just get back to work.

When they arrived back at the DEO, Brainy forwent post-mission briefing and walked straight up to Nia. “My use of a pet name, this afternoon, was it... wrong?”

Nia smiled at him. “No, no, it wasn’t wrong. I mean, I doubt that anywhere online is a site that tells you exactly when and when not to use pet names... and even if there was, it probably didn’t have ‘fighting crime’ on either side of the list. I just think that, in the future...”

She trailed off, because Brainy was frowning at her quizzically. “You know what?” Nia said, changing tactics. “As long as you’re ready to deal with Alex and Kara’s teasing, you can call me pet names whenever you want.”

A smile broke over Brainy’s face. “Wonderful!” he cried. “I will continue my search for the _perfect_ pet name for you... honey bunches.”

Nia choked. “Nope!” she yelped as she began to walk away. “Nope, it’s not that one, definitely not that one.”

Brainy started to laugh, and Nia grinned at him over her shoulder as she waved goodbye.

Once again, the pet names were dropped for a period of time. The next incident took place in Kara’s apartment, during game night. Nia and Brainy were on the same team (like always), and Nia had just scored them a point.

“Great work, darling!” Brainy cried.

Lena snorted, and nudged Brainy as best she could from her chair. “Uh.... Brainy, you’re a country boy now?”

Brainy frowned. “I did not realize that pet names had different accents and upbringings associated with them. Which other ones should I be wary of?”

“Uh... ‘love’ is pretty British, and ‘sugar’ is generally southern, too,” Kara supplied, trying to look serious but kind of failing. “And ‘dear’ is basically only said by old people.”

“Aww, my grandparents used to say ‘dear’,” Nia said with a laugh. She looked sidelong at Brainy and smirked a little. “Maybe when we’re old and have been married for fifty years we can say that, too.”

Brainy nodded, taking her completely seriously even as Alex snorted with laughter. “I will store a reminder in my brain for me to begin calling you that on our fiftieth wedding anniversary,” he replied.

The next morning, Nia woke up to her beside table covered with an array of coffee and breakfast food. “Aww, Brainy, what’s this?”

“I recalled that you have an employee evaluation with Andrea this afternoon,” Brainy said, popping up, fully awake, on the other side of the bed. “So I thought you should start the day right, mi mariposa.”

Nia blushed, suddenly flustered. Being woken up with breakfast and bed and Brainy calling her ‘my butterfly’ in Spanish was _definitely_ a good start to the morning. “Thank you,” she murmured, and both of them smiled at each other until the romance got too awkward. Then Nia coughed and looked away and focused her attention on stuffing a croissant in her mouth. 

“For a butterfly, you are awfully hungry,” Brainy teased, reaching over her to snag a piece of croissant himself. Nia almost slapped his hand away (she was defensive about her food!) but she stopped herself. He _had_ bought her this, after all. 

“Shut up,” she mumbled, her cheeks full almost to the bursting. “If I’m even a little hungry for my meeting Andrea will hear my stomach growling and probably dock points.”

In reality, Andrea was actually pretty pleased with Nia, as she told Brainy when she called him during her lunch break. 

“I’m proud of you,” Brainy answered. “Though I expected nothing else, Object Of My Affection.”

Nia let out a surprised choke of laughter. “ _Object of my affection_?” she repeated, coughing a little at the force of her mirth. “Did you just call me _object of my affection_?”

“Not a winner?” Brainy asked, and she could almost hear him trying not to laugh.

“No,” Nia said firmly, rubbing a hand over her face.

“I really am trying,” he said, sounding a little more serious. “I am determined to find you the perfect pet name, no matter how long it takes and how many I have to go through.”

Brainy wasn’t lying. When they went out for drinks with the Superfriends, he managed to call her Angel, Princess, and Love of my Life over the course of a single evening. As they were walking back home, Nia gave her review.

“Out of the three, love of my life was the best,” she said. “If I’m being honest, being called a Princess brings up some pretty bad memories of transphobes mocking me before I made my transition. And I am _definitely_ not an angel.”

Brainy’s expression darkened. “My sincerest apologies. I had not intended to dredge up any unhappy moments from your past.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Nia told him quickly, reaching out to take his hand and give it a quick squeeze. “I know that you would never, _ever_ mean to hurt me. You would have had no way to know about all of that.”

He nodded, but still looked unsettled, and Nia was mostly unsurprised to find vibrantly colored flowers sitting on her bedside table the next morning. When she peeked at the card, she smiled. ‘ _Good morning, my one true love. These reminded me of you and how you are more beautiful, strong, fierce, funny and intelligent than any princess._ ’ 

Over the next few weeks, Brainy kept trying. But none of the pet names seemed to _stick_. He even tried woman of my dreams, but Nia thought that was a little clunky. During the time he was trying to find her perfect pet name, Nia began calling him Wildcat. She wasn’t exactly sure why, but it seemed to work. Besides, she could say it teasingly and seductively depending on the situation, and she liked the versatility. Also.... High School Musical. ‘Nuf said. 

Finally, she and Brainy found themselves at dinner on a Friday night and Brainy broached the subject of pet names for the dozenth time. “I give up,” he said, shoulders slumping. “I have tried every pet name I could find. I suppose that I could beginning scouring other languages, but....”

Nia shook her head. “I think it has to come naturally,” she decided, reaching out to pat his hand. “Besides, it doesn’t matter if you have the perfect pet name or not. If it’s meant to be, one of them will show up eventually.”

Brainy nodded, not looking terribly convinced. It was about then that they heard the sound of gunshots from down the street. Nia jumped to her feet and then paused, glancing over at her boyfriend. “You want to-?”

“He’s all yours,” Brainy told her graciously. He smiled. “Good get him, Dreamer.”

Nia stopped and they stared at each other for a moment.

“Huh,” Brainy said, blinking a few times.

“Huh,” Nia echoed. “You know....”

“For a pet name, that’s not-”

“That’s not bad,” Nia finished, and grinned widely. “That’s not bad at all.”


	22. Sick-Week-Staycation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Nia is sick and Brainy goes a little crazy, but eventually they figure things out so Nia has the best sick-week of her life.
> 
> Spoilers: Yeahhh, there’s spoilers for/ references to their whole fall-apart in Season 5

A soft thump made Nia looked up through bleary eyes. Brainy had just set down a mug of tea on her bedside table. It was a gesture that, in itself, would have been sweet. 

But there were already _three other mugs of tea_ crowded on the table. Nia was pretty sure that if Brainy added another one, the lamp was going to fall off the edge. 

“Brainy?” she asked, squinting at him through her headache and pushing herself up her pillows a little. “You... made more tea?”

“Indeed I did,” Brainy replied, putting his hands behind his back. “You see, Nia, each of these teas has a different healing property, careful cultivated to ease your various ailments. The...”

Nia tuned him out, which was something she was getting uncomfortably good at. The seemingly endless string of days when Brainy had been on non-stop poetry mode had turned her ignoring-Brainy ability into a finely tuned skill. 

It was a skill that Nia hadn’t needed in awhile, though. Brainy had been doing so much better at checking his obsessive tendencies, but apparently Nia being sick made all of that self-control crumble. Hence the four mugs of different teas. 

“Here, drink something,” Brainy urged, finally ceasing his monologue about ginger and lemon and clearing Nia’s sinuses. He helped her sit up, which was a bit much, and thrust a mug of tea into her hands.

Nia took it, but the ceramic was considerably hotter than she’d expected. She let go instinctively with a cry of pain, and only Brainy’s insane reflexes kept the mug from crashing to her lap. Unfortunately for Nia, Brainy’s desperate grab at the handle sent tea splashing all over Nia’s pajama shirt.

Nia’s mouth fell open and she looked down at her soaked shirt in shock. “Ah!” Brainy cried. “Let me get you a new shirt; being wet is _not_ good for sick people.”

He hurried over to her dresser and pulled out a t-shirt. Nia grabbed his hands before he began to change her himself. “ _I can do it_ ,” she told him firmly, and he turned his back respectfully while she changed. 

Nia was annoyed. The shirt she’d had one had been her comfiest pajama shirt; the one she always wore when she was sick. The shirt that Brainy had picked out was just a cotton, _short-sleeve_ t-shirt. But there was no way that Nia had the energy to get her butt out of bed and get a new one, and she was honestly a little wary to actually _ask_ Brainy for anything. He was doing all of this without her even requesting it. How crazy would he go if she actually said she wanted something?

Changing had made Nia cold, and so she tried to worm back under her covers again. “I apologize profusely,” Brainy was saying as he felt at the mug’s side. “I always forget how... sensitive a human hand is to heat. I should have realized the mug would burn your fingers and accounted for your reaction.”

“It’s fine,” Nia mumbled, turning over to her side and curling into a ball. Even four blankets deep, she was freezing. Having a fever sucked. “I just need some-”

“Soup!” Brainy pronounced, sticking his finger in the air. 

“No, not soup,” Nia said, shutting her eyes tightly in an attempt to block him out. “Not soup. _Sleep_. I need some sleep.”

“Oh.” Brainy drew up short for a moment, before leaping into action again and clearing his throat. Before Nia knew what was happening, he had his hand stroking her hair and was humming lightly under his breath.

Nia resisted the urge to cry. She hated that she had to have this conversation with him _again_ , especially considering how much it had hurt him last time, but... “Brainy,” Nia said firmly, twisting away from his hands. “I can’t sleep when people are touching me or making noise- I mean, it’s going to be hard enough with my stuffy nose.”

“Ah, tissues,” Brainy said, nodding in understanding. “I will get you some tissues and decongestant!” 

“No!” Nia cried, sitting up in bed. Her head spun, and she had to clench the sheets in her fists to keep from groaning. “No, Brainy, no more. No more tea, or soup, or- or singing. I’ve been taking care of myself while I was sick for a _long_ time, and I really don’t-”

Brainy’s hand fell away from her hair and his shoulders slumped. “I... understand,” he murmured. “I am doing.... too much, once again. I apologize, Nia Nal. I shall go.”

He tried to gather up all the mugs and ended up spilling tea across Nia’s bedside table. She watched him, tears gathering in her eyes. “Brainy, I didn’t mean-”

“Don’t say anything more,” Brainy told her, looking at her through very round, shiny eyes. “You do not need me.”

With that, he finally managed to pick up the mugs and hurried out of Nia’s bedroom. A moment later, Nia heard the sound of ceramic hitting the bottom of the sink, and then the front door slammed. 

Nia fell back against her pillows, the first of her tears rolling down her face. She hadn’t _meant_ to get upset, she was just so tired and grumpy and she really didn’t feel like she could deal with Brainy going crazy. But she hadn’t wanted him to _leave_. Nia knew that he was just acting the way he was because he felt bad for her and wasn’t sure what to do to help. 

Brainy loved to help; he _needed_ to help. It lead to him working himself to the bone at the DEO, and staying out into the wee hours of the morning patrolling the city streets, or pampering Nia to her wits end. Nia loved that quality of his, she really did, but it took all of her energy on normal days to calm him down enough that she could manage it. And that energy that she needed just didn’t exist right now.

But now she had upset him. Again. Nia remembered how long it had taken Brainy to even let her _talk_ to him the first time she had told him he was doing to much. How stubborn would he be about it this time? 

It would be in the best interest of their relationship for Nia to get out of bed and run after her boyfriend. But even the thought of standing up made her woozy, so she just curled up a little tighter and hoped that Brainy would come back on his own.

Then, as Nia’s tears dried into a salty mask on her face, she finally fell asleep.

**W / T \ Y**

Brainy was halfway down the stairs before he realized what he was doing.

Nia, his girlfriend, the _love of his life_ , was upstairs. She was sick and tired and hurting and he was _leaving her_.

‘ _She wanted you to leave_ ’, an annoying, taunting voice in the upper left corner of Brainy’s mind reminded him. ‘ _She said she didn’t need you_.’

“No, she didn’t,” Brainy countered aloud, turning around on the stairs and beginning to charge back up them. “I simply overwhelmed her. I will... do better this time.”

His resolved strengthened, Brainy reached his apartment door again. He swallowed and opened it, wincing as he realized he had forgotten to turn the lock on his way out. He had gone from overboard to neglectful, and he wasn’t sure what was worse.

Nia was curled up in bed, and though her eyes were closed and she appeared sound asleep, Brainy could see tear droplets still glistening on her eyelashes and cheekbones. His heart clenched with a surge of guilt, but he refrained from trying to make amends with drastic measures. Instead, Brainy got a dishcloth and cleaned up the spilled tea as quietly as possible. Then he picked up Nia’s discarded pajama shirt, still damp, and took it to the dryer. 

When he returned to the bedroom to find Nia still asleep, Brainy stood awkwardly at the foot of the bed, twisting his Legion ring around his finger. He wanted desperately to apologize for how he had acted, both for going crazy with the tea (among other things), and for walking out. But Brainy also knew how important sleep was when your body was trying to heal itself.

Nia shifted a little in bed, her stuffy nose making her breathing squeak slightly. She looked so pale and delicate and _breakable_ in the big, blanketed bed that Brainy’s heart clenched again. He had never felt more protective for someone in his life than right in that moment. 

Nia was still sleeping, so Brainy let out a deep sigh and grabbed his phone and some earbuds. He wasn’t one to sit and watch YouTube very often, but at the very least it would pass the time. As carefully as possible, Brainy scooted onto his side of the bed and arranged himself into a comfortable position. He was surprised when Nia murmured something under her breath and shifted towards him, her forehead falling against his arm. 

Brainy froze, not daring to breathe in case he woke her up. After a few moments, though, it became clear that Nia was still sleeping soundly. Brainy relaxed a little and turned on his phone, absorbing himself in his screen.

**W / T \ Y**

When Nia woke up, her forehead was pressed into something warm and.... _alive_. Squinting against her headache, Nia blearily opened her eyes to see a bottom-side view of Brainy’s face.

He must have sensed her waking up, because he pulled his earbuds out immediately and put them and his phone on the bedside table. “Nia.”

“Brainy?” Nia’s voice came out hoarse and rusty, like she was about to lose it. “You left.”

“I know,” Brainy replied, his face falling. “But I... returned. And I’m so sorry, Nia, I understand that I- I went overboard. Again. But I still should not have left you when you were feeling the way you were.”

“It’s okay,” Nia said simply. She would have moved to sit up, to have a real conversation with him, but his arm was warm and the pillow was comfortable and she was still so tired. “I’m sorry, too. I shouldn’t have gotten upset at you. I know that things that are out of your control are hard for you, and I should have been more understanding of how you would react.”

She broke off to cough into her elbow, a disgusting amount of phlegm sticking in her throat. Brainy reached out and brushed her hair out of her face, running his fingers through the dark strands in a way that was, admittedly, pretty soothing. “How do you feel?” he asked her, oh-so-gently, like he was nervous that even just saying that would be going overboard.

“Crappy,” Nia admitted, pushing herself up a little to try and get more air into her lungs. “I hate how dry and stiff everything feels when you wake up with a cold.”

Brainy leaned over and pushed his lips into her temple, and Nia looked over at him in surprise. The unexpected show of affection was explained, however, when Brainy said, “Your temperature is approximately 101.7. If it spikes to over 103, I will be taking you to a more practiced medical examiner.”

“A doctor?” Nia abbreviated with a smirk. “You literally could have just said a doctor.”

“Well it.... could have been... a _nurse_ ,” Brainy spluttered. Nia snorted with laughter, coughed a little more, wiped her nose on her sleeve, and then curled up into his side more firmly. 

“I can get you-” Brainy took a deep breath. “That is to say, _would you like_ a tissue?”

“Thank you for asking,” Nia said immediately, knowing he basically survived off of reinforcement. “I should probably get one but you’re warm and I’m comfy so... let’s just stay here awhile.”

Brainy nodded. “Understood,” he agreed.

“What were you watching?” Nia asked, nodding over at his phone.

Brainy frowned thoughtfully, reaching for the device and absentmindedly straightening out his earbuds. “It is a youtube channel that I discovered, titled _5-Minute Crafts_. It is _supposed_ to be crafts and.... _life hacks_ , but most of the content on the channel is fairly impossible for the average human being to succeed at. Also... I believe they used the same video clip no less than three times in the four videos I watched before you awoke.”

Nia laughed out loud again. “Let’s watch some anyway,” she replied sleepily. “Those videos are stupid but they always give me a strange urge to DIY.”

**W / T \ Y**

Nia must have fallen asleep partway through a 5-Minute Crafts video, because she awoke from a dream about how to turn a one-use plastic water bottle into a mold for a cement planter. When she rolled blearily onto her side and shoved her hair out of her face, she found that Brainy wasn’t in bed with her anymore.

The question of his location was quickly answered when he stepped into the room holding a bowl of soup. “Good, you’re awake,” he said, smiling. “I made you some lunch, if you’re feeling hungry?”

“I’m always hungry,” Nia declared, reaching eagerly for the bowl. “Even with no appetite. And yes I know that doesn’t make sense but it’s true.”

Brainy just accepted it, and passed her the bowl. “Thank you for not trying to spoon-feed me,” Nia said, only half-joking. She dipped her spoon into the bowl and blew lightly on the soup before taking a sip. “Mmm, this is good. Did you make it yourself?”

“If by _make_ you mean, put into a microwave and hit a button, then yes, I made it myself,” Brainy replied a little sheepishly. 

“My microwave can be very hard to operate,” Nia said seriously. “There was this one time that I tried to heat up some pasta and I ended up managing to reset the clock.” She paused, thoughtful. “I’m still not exactly sure how that happened.”

Brainy’s eyebrows raised and he moved to sit down on the bed again. “I had no idea. I suppose I got off easy considering that your microwave and I seemed to work quite well together.”

“You’re good with machines,” Nia said, taking another sip of her soup before putting the bowl aside and curling up again. 

“How are you feeling?” Brainy asked as he reached forward to stroke a bit of hair away from her face and, Nia presumed, checking her temperature.

She shrugged, sniffling a little. “Alright, I guess. I’ve got a headache and I just hate the amount of pressure that comes with a stuffy nose, you know? Like, could you make a tiny little bomb and stick it up my nostril and then explode it so everything can just.... come out?”

Brainy’s lips quirked slightly and Nia shook her head, rubbing a hand over her face. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “I really don’t know what’s coming out of my mouth right now.”

“We’ll blame it on the fever,” Brainy said with a laugh.

“That sounds like a good plan,” Nia agreed, wincing a little. 

“Would you like to get some more rest?” Brainy asked after a moment. “I don’t want to interrupt your healing process in any way.”

“You won’t,” Nia assured him. She was starting to overheat, and sat up to push a few of her layers of covers back. “I might take a shower. The steam is probably a good substitute for that tiny little bomb.”

Brainy nodded, and Nia felt a bit calmer when he didn’t immediately ask if she needed assistance. Groaning a little, she pushed herself out of bed and headed for the bathroom.

The steam _did_ feel nice, and the dried sweat washing off of her body left her feeling fresh and clean. She was yawning and leaden by the time she had toweled off and put a new pair of (long-sleeved) pajamas on and headed back to her bedroom. Brainy had exchanged his phone for a book and was skimming it with squinted eyes.

“Reading,” Nia commented in surprise, and he jumped a little, glancing up at her sharply. “That’s not something I see you do very often.”

“Yes, well...” Brainy closed the book sheepishly and put it on the side table. “Generally, I find electronic versions of books and download them directly into my brain. But for whatever reason, Kindle does not transfer the classics well. It leaves them very.... jumbled.”

“Classics, huh?” Nia tilted her head, walking back over to sit on the bed. She didn’t make a move to put the covers back on, disappointed to find sweat already starting to bead under her damp hairline again. “I didn’t know you were into old books.”

“I, uh.” Brainy coughed, looking self conscious. “I must admit that I enjoy the occasional Jane Austen novel.”

Nia’s face lit up with glee. “ _Jane Austen_?” she echoed. “Like, the romance author who wrote _Pride and Prejudice_?”

“ _Emma_ is far superior,” Brainy mumbled, flushing. “Besides, I do not read them for- for the _romance_. Her language is sublime and I find her to be amusing and witty.”

Nia smiled at him, reaching over to tip his chin so he was looking at her. “I love it,” she said genuinely. “I think this is maybe my new favorite thing about you, that you sit in our bed and read _Emma_ by Jane Austen.” 

She was about to kiss him, but then a tickle rose in her throat and she had to abruptly pull away to cough into her sleeve. It was probably good to have a reminder of her current situation; getting Brainy sick when he was just trying to take care of her (and all because she’d taken the luxury of _kissing_ him) wouldn’t really be fair to him. 

Brainy looked a little disappointed, but he settled for patting Nia on the hand and picking up his book again. “Would you like me to read to you?” he offered, cheeks darkening again. “You could rest your eyes while still remaining stimulated.”

Nia’s lips twitched, but she settled down with her head on the pillow. Already she was feeling bleary again and she wanted to grab this sickness by the throat and strangle it because it was really doing a number on her system. “Sure,” she decided. “Read away.”

Brainy began reading from wherever he’d left off, so the plot didn’t make much sense to Nia. It was too much work to focus on the intricate language and sentence structures, so she let her eyes drift shut and just let the words flow over her. Brainy’s voice was soothing, not a monotone but not terribly animated, and it wasn’t long before Nia was falling asleep again. 

**W / T \ Y**

It took Brainy almost an entire chapter before he realized that his girlfriend was no longer listening to him read. He was turning the page and clearing his throat to begin a new paragraph when his eyes caught on Nia. 

She looked beautiful when she slept, but for once that wasn’t what caught his eye. There was a dark flush slowly heating her cheeks and she was starting to get restless, shifting a little on top of the covers. Brainy reached over and nervously held his hand to her forehead. 

_102.2_. Her fever was spiking dangerously high. Brainy knew that he’d said that he would take her to a doctor if it reached 103, but he didn’t like 102 very much, either. 

Not wanting to wake her, Brainy moved off of the bed as quietly as possible and into the kitchen. He got himself a towel from the top drawer on the left and quickly drenched it in cold water from the tap. Then he squeezed it out and brought it back to the bedroom. 

Nia’s breaths were coming in short pants and sweat was gleaming on her face. Brainy rested the cloth on her forehead and a shudder ran through her body as the cold made contact with her overheated skin. Hopefully, this raise in temperature meant her fever was breaking. If so, there wasn’t much else he could do.

Brainy got back into bed and reached for his book, trying not to focus to much on Nia’s obvious discomfort. She had started muttering under her breath, and he heard his name, along with her mother’s, Maeve’s, Kara’s, and even James’ a few times. He reached out and ran his fingers through her damp hair, trying to control his overwhelming desire to do _something_.

It felt like forever, but Nia finally calmed. She settled on her side in the bed and began to breathe much deeper and steadier, locked in a deep sleep. Brainy checked the time. They had had lunch late and it was starting to near dinner time. He was hungry, and suddenly remembered that he hadn’t eaten much at all that day.

By the time Brainy had consumed a solid meal of leftover pasta, Nia was waking up. She walked groggily out of the bedroom and slumped at the table, putting her head down on her arms.

“How do you feel?” Brainy asked her gently, reaching out to try and check her fever.

“Gross,” Nia sniffled. 

“Your fever broke,” Brainy told her as his fingers made contact with her forehead. “That’s good.”

Nia shrugged and shut her eyes. “Don’t feel much better,” she mumbled. “I always get sick for so long and it’s really annoying.”

Brainy’s lips quirked upwards. “I believe you should consider yourself lucky,” he told her bracingly. “I have known you for quite a few months now and I have _never_ seen you get sick.”

“It doesn’t hit a lot, but when it does it hits hard,” Nia agreed, sniffing again. 

“Do you wish to eat anything?” Brainy prodded gently. “You must stay nourished.”

“Maybe some toast,” Nia said, and looked at him with large puppy-dog eyes. “Do you mind-?”

“Right away,” Brainy assured him immediately, hopping to his feet to bring his empty bowl to the sink and prepare some toast for her. 

Nia ate her meagre dinner slowly, staring at the countertop with a glazed expression on her face. She had been sleeping all day, but yet her eyes still had deep circles under them and her face was incredibly pale. Brainy watched her in quickly glances, trying not to be too overbearing, but she caught his eye anyway.

“I’m okay,” she told him, reaching out to put her hand on top of his. “Trust me- a few more days of rest and relaxation and I will be back on my feet and smashing bad guys heads together both literally and literarily again.” She paused. “Ooh, that was a good sentence.”

“That _was_ a good sentence,” Brainy said, impressed. “I believe some of that Jane Austen absorbed into your mind even once you’d fallen asleep.”

Nia huffed out a laugh and then coughed a few times. She looked at him with those same puppy-dog eyes again. “A tissue would be awesome, if the offer is still on the table for you to get me one.”

Brainy laughed and got back up. “Of course,” he told her, kissing her forehead and going off to get her what she needed.

**W / T \ Y**

True to Nia’s word, her cold or flu or whatever it was kept her down for the count for the next few days. She tried to get Brainy to go back to work but he was determined to stay with her for however long it took for her to get better. 

“You shouldn’t be using your sick days because _I’m_ sick,” Nia groaned as she put her hair up into a messy bun and slouched onto the couch holding a box of tissues. She had been basically bound to her bedroom and the living/kitchen area for four days now, and was finally starting to feel a bit better. “What happens if you use them all up and then _you_ get sick?”

“I will not use them all up,” Brainy sighed, sitting down next to her. “Besides, I never get sick.”

“Donnnn’t say that,” Nia warned him, reaching out to rap her knuckles on their wooden coffee table. “I swear, every sick fic ever begins with one character saying they never get sick and ends with them catching whatever the person they’re taking care of has.”

“Sick.... fic?” Brainy repeated slowly, squinting a little. 

Nia’s cheeks colored. “It’s uh-” she shook her head. “I’ll explain fanfiction another day. That’s a weeks worth of conversation right there in one topic.”

Brainy frowned contemplatively but accepted her words. “Anyways,” he went on, reverting back to their originally conversation. “I have been aiding the DEO in a few things from home when you were napping. And besides, it’s almost as if we’re taking a small... staycation, I believe it’s called.”

Nia wrinkled her nose at the small mound of dirty tissues on the side table that she hadn’t bothered to pick up. “Yeah,” she said dryly. “This is just a _dream_ vacation.”

“Has it really been terrible for you?” Brainy asked her, face falling a little. “Besides the being sick part, of course. I... I have rather enjoyed being able to spend so much one-on-one time with you, reading and watching TV and eating meals together.”

Nia felt a guilty surge in her chest and quickly turned herself on the couch so she could reach out and grasp his hands. “Oh my gosh, of course,” she said, shaking her head. “Brainy, I- this is the _best_ four sick days I’ve ever had. Usually I’m miserable and just watching youtube and lying in bed all day, but now I’ve been laughing and have had someone to cuddle with and get me soup and...” She trailed off, not feeling like she was getting her point across enough. “I’m just bitter because we’ve had all this amazing time together but I haven’t even been feeling well enough to- to _kiss_ you, you know?”

“There will be time for that,” Brainy told her with what could almost be called a coy smile. “Besides... you will not be sick _forever_ , and in reality...” He scooted forward on the couch, nearer to her. “You are most likely no longer contagious.”

Nia felt a laugh bubbling up but she fought it back, knowing Brainy was trying to be flirtatious and not wanting to embarrass him. “You know,” she said, playing along. “You’re probably right. Besides, if I _am_ contagious... you’ve probably already caught it by now.”

“So there’s really no risk,” Brainy agreed in a low voice, cupping her face and bringing her in for a kiss. 

Nia let out a soft sigh of contentment, wrapping her pajama-clad arms around his waist in an attempt to get as close as possible. She and Brainy didn’t kiss a _ton_ , but there was usually at least a peck to say good night or good morning, or just to wish each other a good day at work. But now they had gone almost four days without kissing and, if Nia was honest, she had missed it. 

Brainy’s mouth was warm and gentle and he smelled nice. Nia smiled a little against his lips, pressing ever-closer. 

When they finally broke apart, Nia brushed some hair out of Brainy’s eyes and let her hand drop to his wrist so she could give it a squeeze. “There,” she said softly. “Now this sick day staycation was perfect.”


	23. Crisis in Brainy's World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Post the events of Crisis Part 1, Brainy worries about where Nia ended up
> 
> Spoilers: Major spoilers for the first episode of Crisis!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This entire fanfiction was inspired by Nia just _mentioning_ Brainy's name. I got REALLY good at working off of literally nothing during Supergirl's 5 Season.

Brainy was pacing nervously in a back hallway of the Arrow Cave, one hand fiddling sightlessly with his phone and the other clenching and unclenching at his side. He had just made his 72nd about-face when he almost smacked straight into Lois.

She wasn’t carrying her baby, which meant he had to be with Clark. Brainy didn’t understand that. If he had his.... _person_ back, he wouldn’t be letting her go for a very long time. 

“Brainy?” Lois asked, eyebrows furrowing in concern.

“Hm?” Brainy replied absently. She was in the way of his pacing so he forced himself to stop his jittery movements.

“Are you alright?” Lois continued, tilting her head a little. “Did you... know Oliver well?”

Oliver. As awful as it was, Brainy had almost forgotten about the fact that a member of their team had just died in front of them. “Uh, no, no,” he muttered, waving away her question with his hand. “We were.... barely acquainted.”

“Oh.” Lois seemed at a loss. “Is... something else the matter, then?”

Brainy let out a breath. It would be nice to let his worry off his chest, and to someone who wasn’t grieving at the moment. It didn’t seem like Lois knew Oliver very well, either, so he wouldn’t seem so selfish sharing his worries. “I’ve been... calling,” he began, holding up his phone as if to prove the point. “And calling and... calling.”

“Okay...” Lois said slowly. “And... who have you been calling, exactly?”

“Nia,” Brainy answered. “Nia- Nia Nal- _my_ Nia Nal.”

Lois frowned slightly. “Was the... was the ‘my’ put in there to clarify that she wasn’t a doppelgänger, or...?”

“No, no, we’re- we are dating. We’re together.” Those words always felt so trivial. They didn’t capture that whole love-of-my-life, center-of-my-world spot that Nia occupied in Brainy’s heart. “She is a- a superhero but she is not... _here_.”

“Oh,” Lois repeated, but now it was sounding like she understood. “She was on our Earth? When it... disintegrated?”

Brainy nodded. Just hearing someone say those words out loud made his legs shake. He clenched his hand tighter around his phone. “She was. Along with Alex, and Kelly, and J’onn. No one has heard from _any_ of them since the Earth was destroyed. We know they saved 3 billion people but I- I know Nia. She never would have boarded that ship if it meant someone else could be- could be saved.”

His breathing shuddered, and Brainy felt familiar wetness on his cheeks. Lois melted into mother-hen mode and her eyebrows creased with sympathy. She stepped forward and put her arms around his shoulders, Brainy standing very stiffly in her embrace. “I’m sorry,” Lois said. “I’m so sorry. But you can’t lose hope, Brainy. There’s always a chance that she got on one of those ships and that she’s safe. That _all_ of them are.”

Brainy felt another shudder ripple through him. “Then why-” His voice broke. “Then why won’t she answer her phone?”

Lois winced, pulling back a little. “Uh... no reception in space?”

Brainy gave her a look, unamused, and Lois winced again. “I really don’t know, Brainy. But, as much as a it pains me to say this, we really can’t worry about them right now. If they- if _Nia_ \- really _did_... disintegrate, then..... there’s nothing more we can do. J’onn, Alex, Kelly, Nia- they’re all capable people. They’ll be able to help themselves. So worrying about them.... it’s not going to help them, and it won’t help us, either.”

Brainy nodded, but he wasn’t really listening. Pep talks were what superheroes were supposed to give and respond to. Nia loved them. But for Brainy.... it was all just words, smushed together in a way that might have been intended to lift spirits. 

It didn’t lift his. 

**W / T \ Y**

Across the room, through a sea of people, there she was.

“NIA!” Brainy yelled, her name tearing from his throat as his face burst into a grin.

Her head lifted and a smile bloomed and she flew through the crowd toward him. 

They were about to collide, about to smash into each others arms, and-

Brainy woke up, his arms reaching for something invisible. He felt his heartbeat slamming against the side of his neck and forced himself to relax and to drop his hands back down to his sides.

He was in one of the side rooms in the Arrow Cave on a cot that had been previously used on a medical gurney. It was thin as paper and Brainy could feel every roll of his spine against the cement floor, but he supposed it was better than actually _lying on the cement floor_.

It had been almost two days since they had lost 4.5 billion people from Earth 38, and it had been almost two days since Brainy had heard from Nia.

She still hadn’t called or texted. And it wasn’t just her- _none_ of the Superfriends left on Earth 38 had contacted anyone. But Brainy felt like he was the only one worrying about the members of the team they had left behind. 

Granted, everyone else was pretty occupied with worrying about different matters, like the multiverse being destroyed planet by planet, so he supposed it made sense.

Brainy slung his legs over the side of his cot and buried his face in his hands. He missed the bed in his and Nia’s apartment, the way the sun shining in through their too-thin curtains made everything look a little blue. He missed watching Nia’s slow wake-up process after her alarm went off, her hair mussed from sleep and the first thoughts on her mind going Brainy, Food, Instagram. She was a little like clockwork, but Brainy liked the regularity and the schedule. He was struggling with this change more than he’d expected he would have.

It would have been easier if Nia was there with him, a spot of warmth pressed against his back on the freezing cement floor. But no. He’d been _chosen_ by the Monitor, and she hadn’t. And so now they were separated by who-knew how much space... a space that was even more massive if she was _dead_.

Brainy shivered, reaching around to pull his thin blanket over his shoulders. He was surprised that he hadn’t been dreaming about watching Nia disintegrate in front of him. As hard as imagining reuniting with her only to wake up without her was, it was better than watching her die. 

Worried he had jinxed it, Brainy laid back down on his cot and tried to sleep again.

**W / T \ Y**

Brainy wished he could talk to Kara.

Instead, he was stuck sitting in the Arrow Cave with Lois across from him, poking at whatever Sara had managed to scrounge up for dinner without setting the whole place on fire. That wasn’t to say the food wasn’t completely burnt... but at least they weren’t. 

Lois had her baby, Jonathan, in her arms, and she was rocking him gently back and forth and cooing to him softly under her breath. “We’re you aware,” Brainy spoke up, because it was awkward just sitting and watching her. “That parentese is a language spoken by all parents? So if your child somehow ended up in a different country, he would still be able to differentiate soothing tones from angry ones.”

“Huh,” Lois replied, choosing not to comment on the idea of her kid ending up in a different country without her. “I didn’t know that, no.”

“Indeed,” Brainy answered, before he went back to jabbing the tines of his plastic fork (single use... both un-environmental _and_ impractical) against the browned skin of what he was pretty sure was supposed to be an omelet. 

Lois glanced up from Jonathan, raising her eyebrow in Brainy’s direction. “You alright? You’ve barely eaten since we got stranded here.”

“I’m...” Brainy searched around in his mental thesaurus for a suitable word. “Coping.”

“That doesn’t sound too good.”

“Maybe not,” Brainy agreed, shrugging a little. “But it is the best I can do.”

Lois nodded, kissing Jonathan on the forehead before setting him very carefully into the makeshift crib she and her husband had shlepped together from supplies found in the Cave. Brainy watched the movement, and as her hair fell across her face and obscured it, he tried to imagine that it was Nia sitting across from him. Of course, Lois was much more petite than Nia, her hair was lighter, her shoulders less broad... the switch wasn’t working. 

Which brought him back to why he needed to talk to Kara. He wasn’t sure how, but he felt like Kara would know what was going on with the rest of their friends. She _always_ knew what was going on. At the very least she could help him figure it out.

But Kara was busy. The multiverse was at stake. Brainy really didn’t understand why he couldn’t get his priorities in order like everyone else.

“It’s because you love her,” Lois said.

Brainy jumped a little and looked up to find her staring at him. “Did I...” He mentally replayed the moment. “I said that aloud, didn’t I?”

“The bit about you getting your priorities in order?” Lois confirmed. “Yeah, you said that out loud. But seriously- whether or not you meant me to hear that, my answer still stands. You can’t see saving the multiverse as more important than knowing if your girlfriend is alright because you love her.” She shrugged. “It’s as simple as that.”

“It is- it is _not_ simple!” Brainy scoffed. “I don’t believe you understand... I am a 12th Level Intellect! I can compartmentalize my brain so thoroughly that I can make myself forget things under the _harshest_ of tortures. I should be able to see logic in this situation!”

Somewhere in the course of his rant Brainy had put his fork down on the table and gotten to his feet. At the sound level of his voice, Jonathan woke up and began to cry. Lois sighed and picked him up, and Brainy immediately felt guilty.

“I apologize,” he muttered, chagrined. Watching Jonathan wailing in Lois’ arms brought an unexpected stinging to the backs of his eyeballs. “I did not intend to awake your child.”

“It’s fine. Totally normal,” Lois said, bouncing Jonathan in her arms. “Shhh.... it’s okay... mommy’s here.... shhhh....”

Once Jonathan had calmed down a little, Lois looked back up at Brainy. “Love isn’t simple,” she said, getting back to their previous discussion like they had never been interrupted. “And it’s _definitely_ not logical. I think almost anyone can agree on that. My point is, you’re not alone in thinking you have your priorities out of wack. But Brainy, love is what keeps us grounded and keeps us fighting. Clark has told me a hundred times over that it’s his love of me and his family that keeps him going. Don’t look at your love of Nia as- as clouding your judgement in any way. Look at it as something to give you strength.”

Lois was good with words; Brainy would give her that. He leaned back in his chair and let out a sigh, looking down at his still-burnt eggs. 

He wasn’t hungry. And he wasn’t okay- he was still worried sick about Nia. But maybe he could use that.

The worry, that was. Not the lack of appetite. Though he supposed even that gave him an excuse not to eat Sara’s disgusting cooking.

**W / T \ Y**

The universes were starting to come back. 

It had been a close shave, though. Too close for comfort. Earth 1, where everyone was apparently hiding out (though none of the heroes knew exactly where because they still hadn’t heard from any of the extended Superfriends team), had been seconds away from being decimated when the Antimonitor had been stopped and the multiverse had been restored.

From Brainy’s perspective, it was a little anticlimactic. One moment he was watching over Jonathan upon Lois and Clark’s request, the next Kara was running in, beaming, and crying that they had done it, they had saved Earth-38.

Then the moment after that Brainy was reaching for his phone and calling Nia. Because if she _had_ been disintegrated... she’d be back now, right?

But the call still went to voicemail, and Brainy’s quick message joined the other twenty-six he had left over the past few weeks. Kara looked at him sympathetically. “I don’t know where they are, Brainy,” she said, and for the first time he realized that maybe she had been worried, too. “But we’re going to find them. Okay?”

“Understood.” Brainy nodded, responding to it like he would an order. “And how shall we go about this?”

“I don’t.... know. Yet,” Kara replied hesitantly. “Maybe.... do you think you can contact your ship and get everyone heading back to Earth 38?”

_His ship_. For a 12th Level Intellect, Brainy really was an idiot. How could he have forgotten to try communicating with his friends through his ship?

He stood up quickly. “I will need access to whatever technology this Arrow Cave holds,” he said, and Kara nodded, leading him to the array of monitors Felicity had set up across various tables.

In mere moments, Brainy was connecting himself to the network and working out a few kinks in the systems. It wasn’t long before he had connected the insufficient technology in the Arrow Cave to the video messaging system in his ship. 

It was grey for a little while. “Nia Nal?” Brainy called, hoping that the microphone would sync even if the video part of the call hadn’t been picked up. “Hello? Is anyone there?”

A couple seconds later, the feedback vanished and Nia’s face popped into the viewfinder. She was way too close; all Brainy could see was the strip of mask covering her eyes and a sliver of pale skin above it. She squinted. “Brainy? Brainy! Ooh, boy, too close. Where’s the camera on this thing?”

A gloved finger suddenly loomed into the screen and poked at the camera, making the picture go dark and fuzzy again. After a little bit of rustling, Nia came back into the frame, standing a more appropriate distance away. “There we go. Hey, Brainy! I’m so glad to see you!”

Brainy was feeling things. Relief... love... _things_. He realized there were tears on his cheeks and he tried to wipe them away before Nia noticed, but he hadn’t moved fast enough. Her face darkened in concern and she tilted her head a little. “Hey... what’s wrong? Is everyone okay? Is Kara-?”

“Yes, yes, everyone’s.... everyone’s fine,” Brainy said quickly, shaking himself out of his stupor. “It is only... you. That is to say- my relief at _seeing_ you.”

Nia’s mask-ringed eyes softened. “I missed you, too. Sorry I wasn’t able to text to let you know I was okay.... the WiFi on this Earth isn’t compatible with my phone, and eventually it just died. I wasn’t sure if I could plug it in anywhere on the ship or if it would, like... explode, or something.”

Brainy smiled faintly and shook his head. The motion cleared his Nia-fogged mind for a moment, and he remembered his task. “My reason for calling is to let you know that you are safe to return home,” he said. 

Nia let out a groan. “Oh, _seriously_? Thank God. I was starting to really stress about how we were gonna fit 3 billion people on another planet, and find them jobs and places to live and everything. And that, like, 4.5 billion people died because we couldn’t get them onboard.”

Her face fell at the thought and Brainy felt his heart clench. “You did the very best you could,” he told her seriously. “And you did very well. There would have been no calculable way to save the entire 7.5 billion person population of planet Earth. I was.... I was _concerned_ that you would have known this but you... would have tried to save just one more by giving someone your place on the ship.”

“I would have,” Nia replied with a shrug that was too offhanded for what she was admitting to. “But Alex, Kelly and I had completely cleaned out Central City. There was no one else to put on your ship without moving to a different area, and we didn’t have time for that. So we got on. But either way, it would have worked out fine! You saved everyone. Can you... can you come home, now?”

Brainy nodded. “Indeed,” he said. “I am sure that we will have to remain for a little while to finish up on this Earth but..... by the time everything has gotten settled on Earth 38, Kara and I shall be back. _I_ will be back... to you.”

Nia smiled at him, her eyes softening even more. There were a few unintelligible noises behind her and she glanced over her shoulder. When she looked back she gave Brainy a wince. “I should go.”

“Can you stay?” he blurted before he could stop himself. “Just a bit longer?”

She hesitated. “I really want to, Brainy, I just... we want to get everyone back as soon as possible, right? I need to tell Lena to start prepping the portal and we need to make sure everyone is on the ships and then we need to travel all the way back and-”

“I understand,” Brainy interrupted. He felt stupid for having even suggested that she keep talking with him. “That was a selfish plea. Go fulfill your duty, Nia Nal, and.... I will see you soon.”

His finger wasn’t responding so Brainy couldn’t make himself end the call. He watched with a strange warm weight in his chest as Nia poked around the screen for a moment, looking for the button that would hang up.

Eventually she found it and the call blinked out. Brainy fell back into his chair and let out a sigh, already aching to see her again.

Soon. He’d be home soon, and back with his Nia.

**W / T \ Y**

Contrary to Brainy’s belief, Barry told him and Kara to head home much sooner than anticipated. After saying goodbye to the rest of their extended Team, the two of them were jumping through a breach and finding themselves back on their planet.

It was completely deserted. National City was as empty as a graveyard, not a single sound emanating from the streets. Traffic lights changed colors unheeded, almost all of the storefronts left unlocked in their owners haste to escape. The DEO was as silent as the rest of the city, without a single agent at their desks. 

It was unnerving, to say the least. 

“It’s completely to be expected,” Brainy said to Kara to fill the ringing silence as they walked into the main room of the DEO. “If you take into account the time it would take Lena to open her portals, and the time needed to make sure everyone was onboard their ships, as well as the actual travel home.... they should be here any minute.”

Kara sent him a sidelong glance. “Nia’s going to be here soon, Brainy,” she said softly, exposing him for the truth that he’d really just been saying all of that to reassure himself.

Brainy wandered off to the balcony, resting his forearms on the railing and looking over the empty city. The streets were deserted save for the occasional car parked alongside the road, the tickets on their dashboards days overdue. The sun was just starting to set, and Brainy was surprised that the pink hues of the sky that he usually loved sent an actual shudder of fear through him. 

Far off in the distance, a cloud flickered purple. Brainy squinted at the shifting color, before a black shape marred the space. “Kara!” Brainy yelled over his shoulder.

She was at his side and seconds, and he felt a surge of guilt for having sounded so urgent. Kara was just as on-edge from the events of the week as he was. “What’s up?” she demanded, ready for more action.

“They’re coming,” Brainy said, pointing off into the distance.

She followed his gaze and a grin broke over her face. Together, they stood at the balcony and watched the flotilla of alien ships pour through the purple breach in the sky. 

**W / T \ Y**

It took Brainy’s ship a full twenty minutes to get through the portal. He wasn’t sure exactly _how_ he knew -whether he just felt Nia’s presence or he recognized the silvery-white gleam of his favorite machine- but the moment his ship crossed from Earth 1 to Earth 38, he knew Nia was coming home. 

Brainy watched the ship until it was out of sight, having landed somewhere in the street and joining dozens of others. By the time he got from the balcony to the sidewalk outside the DEO, people were beginning to fill up the empty spaces. He found his ship and watched as the boarding ramp lowered and people began to pour out. They looked shell-shocked and glazed, and Brainy felt for a moment that he should have joined Kara when she’d left him a few minutes back to help everyone get readjusted. 

But Brainy was pretty sure that he needed to make it so _his_ life wasn’t falling apart before he helped the residents of National City feel that way. 

What happened next was so close to Brainy’s repeated dreams that for a moment he wondered if Nia’s powers had been rubbing off on him. Through the crowd, he saw the blue and silver Dreamer costume he had 3D-printed two years ago, a head of wavy dark brown hair turning this way and that, eyes scanning. 

“Nia!” Brainy yelled, loudly and aggressively enough that people around him turned to look. Nia’s head spun and she let out a laugh of pure joy before barreling toward him. 

Brainy was unable to resist taking a few steps in her direction as well, but he was terrified that the second they reached each other the whole image would shatter and he would wake up, back in the Arrow Cave.

Instead, Nia reached him and threw herself into his arms. Brainy let out a relieved sob and wrapped himself around her. She pressed her face into his neck, and the tip of her nose was as cold as it always was. Still, he wasn’t sure if that was why he shivered.

“I was so worried,” Brainy mumbled, hugging her so tightly that she was sure to be having difficulty breathing. 

“ _You_ were worried?” Nia replied incredulously, pulling back a little. Brainy’s stomach tugged at the loss of her proximity but he restrained the whimper he had almost let out. 

“Yes,” Brainy replied slowly. “Were... you?” The thought hadn’t occurred to him before now.

“Yes, you genius idiot,” Nia answered, still incredulous. “While I was sitting pretty in that ship you were, like, actually in the fray, almost dying. I had no idea who was alive or how to find out. Alex, J’onn, Kelly and I were _freaking out_.”

Brainy let out a breath, his hands clamped on her waist just in case she tried to pull away more. “In reality, I spent most of my time in the Arrow Cave looking after Jonathan with Lois,” he admitted. “I was rarely in harm’s way.”

“Well, I didn’t know that,” Nia said, rolling her eyes. Then she smiled, and suddenly Brainy felt warm and fuzzy. He leaned forward and kissed her, before pulling back and nudging his nose into her cheek and then down to her neck. Nia let out a soft sigh and tilted her head a little, one hand folding itself into the ends of his hair. They stood in that awkward sort-of-hug, mostly-just-closeness position for awhile, breathing each other in.

Brainy had his Nia Nal back. And he wouldn’t be letting her go anytime soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Awww okay reading this over makes me really excited to watch Crisis again when I do my Snowbarry- Season 6 rewrite of it.


	24. dreams, not Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Nia has nightmares. Basic, but does this plot ever get old?
> 
> Spoilers: You kind of have to know who the Children of Liberty are but not.... really? I mean, you’ll be confused for like two sentences you’ll be fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: To clarify, because I realize I might be the only one who does this, when I refer to Nia’s dream ability, I write the word dream with a capital D. When I’m just talking about her normal dreams, I use a lowercase d.

Nia hated nightmares.

She knew that wasn’t very unusual. But if anyone else dared to complain about _their_ nightmares, she would remind them that her powers were _literally. Dreams_. And that meant that, even when they weren’t Dreams, her dreams were incredibly vivid. 

Nia could _also_ remember basically every detail. Which was good, from a power standpoint (prophetic Dreams wouldn’t be very useful if they became hazy and forgotten after Nia woke up), but mostly bad when it came to nightmares.

Because Nia could remember the gleam of the Children of Liberty’s masks in the dim light, and the red spurting from Brainy’s nose as a bat connected with his face, and she could hear his screams of pain ringing in her head like a dinner bell (though it did about the opposite for her appetite). 

Nia didn’t jolt upright when she woke up from nightmares (because bad Dreams didn’t count as nightmares), but she did awake with a start, her mind racing and covered in an uncomfortable layer of sweat. She stayed curled on her side, so tight that she probably could have fit on just her pillow while barely spilling over, feeling her heartbeat pulse through her body.

Brainy. As she felt her body shake, Nia found that she was almost afraid to turn over to his side of the bed and to see if he was okay. But she knew that actually looking at him, whole and unbloodied, would reassure her, and so she twisted in the blankets and peeked over.

There was no one there. 

Nia felt Brainy’s absence like a shockwave through her body and in seconds she was sitting up, her heart rate spiking aggressively again. Where was he?

Nia tumbled out of bed and took a second. Their apartment was big enough, but it wasn’t _big_ , which meant that there were only a few places Brainy could be. Nia went for their kitchen/living room first.

And there Brainy was.

On the floor. 

Blood on his face.

Surrounded by the Children of Liberty, one of them raising their bat and bringing it down on Brainy’s head.

Nia _screamed_.

And then she woke up, still screaming. She thrashed so hard that she actually tumbled off the bed and crashed to the floor. Her elbow hit the hardwood and the back of her head whacked the dresser, but the pain was enough to jolt her out of her panic. 

Two crisp claps echoed in the room and Nia could immediately see a warm glow hitting the wall from the lamp. Brainy was around the side of the bed moments later and Nia pushed herself forward, needing to make sure that his head hadn’t really just been smashed in.

Again: her nightmares were _vivid_ and they _didn’t. Fade_.

“Nia,” Brainy said softly as her fingers grazed over his face before she fell back to the ground with a breath-stealing thump. “I’m going to ask you a question but I am only going to accept one answer. All right?”

“Was that the question?” Nia asked blearily, her voice scraping in her throat. She coughed, feeling the burn from her screaming.

“No,” Brainy replied. “The question is, do you wish to talk about your nightmare?”

Nia’s head fell back to the side of the bed and she let out a deep breath. “How do you know I had a nightmare?” she mumbled, stalling for time. Talking about nightmares was _awkward_ , if she was being honest. And she didn’t want to see Brainy’s gaze go all dark and concerned before he switched over to science mode and tried to psychoanalyze her. Again... _awkward_.

“I have 9 reasons,” Brainy answered promptly. “Would you like me to list them?”

“Sure...?” Nia said slowly, squinting at him in the dark. Her heart rate was starting to go down, and even though he was acting all professional and stiff the sound of his voice was soothing her panic. 

“Elevated heart rate, dilated pupils, rapid breathing, sudden awakening, checking to see if I was all right, screaming, yelling my name in your sleep, significant amounts of past trauma, history of nightmares...” 

Brainy stopped talking, and Nia, who had been counting along almost unconsciously, frowned. “That’s only 8 reasons.”

“Indeed,” Brainy agreed, and then his face softened in the warm lamplight. “The 9th is that I _know you_ , Nia, and I know what you look like when you’ve just had a nightmare.”

Nia wasn’t sure why, but the way he said those words cause a sob to suddenly wrench itself out of her chest. All at once she was curling in on herself and banding her arms around her knees, rocking back and forth on the floor.

“Shhhh....” Brainy whispered, moving forward and taking her into his arms. “Shhhhh....”

Nia’s entire body trembled with the force of her sobs and she felt like she couldn’t get them out of her mouth fast enough. She gripped onto Brainy’s shirt with her hands, choking on her own breath. Now he was rocking her, his palms rubbing firm, soothing circles on her back.

Suddenly, Nia was just exhausted. She was tired of the worry and the fear, and she was tired of the fact that she couldn’t even _dream_ like a normal human. It had to be in full technicolor, 4D, and it _hurt_. It just hurt _so much_ to know that all of what she had dreamed about that night really could have happened to Brainy. 

Her tears started to slow. “You were- were trapped somewhere,” Nia began in a wavering voice, and Brainy’s hands froze for a second before they resumed their motion on her back. “And the Children of Liberty were all around you and- and hitting you with _bats_ , and- then I woke up, but you weren’t there. And so I went to the kitchen and my dream had been- been _real_ , but then it turned out that I was still sleeping and I woke up again.”

“It wasn’t real,” Brainy murmured once he was sure she was finished. “ _This_ is real.”

“I know,” Nia mumbled, rubbing her cheeks on his shirt because she was too tired to raise her arms. “But it could have been real. The Children of Liberty hurt _so many_ aliens... why wouldn’t they have hurt you, too?”

Brainy’s breath ruffled her hair and then his chin came down to rest on the top of her head. She was pretty sure this position couldn’t be comfortable for him, but he wasn’t one to complain about things like that. “Because,” he replied. “I had you to save me. I was... _never_ scared of the Children of Liberty because I knew that you would always be there to protect me, Nia Nal. Just as _I_ would - _will_ \- always be there to protect you.”

Nia nodded. She knew that it would always be possible for someone to get hurt, no matter who was there to protect them, but it was nice to hear that Brainy had that much faith in her.

“Would you like to move back to bed?” Brainy asked softly, his arm twining around her shoulders in a more bracing way. “My knees are beginning to ache and I believe you hit your head on the way down.”

“My head’s all right,” Nia said, though she was pretty sure she’d have a lump tomorrow morning. “But yeah, let’s go back to bed.”

They curled up together on top of the mattress and Brainy pulled the large comforter over the both of them. Nia loved the way sleeping on comforters made her feel like she was resting in a cloud. She also loved the way Brainy stepped out of his comfort zone in that moment and bridged the distance between the two sides of the bed to hold her. 

“If I may ask,” he said, voice low. “What brought about these nightmares? We dealt with the Children of Liberty many months ago. It is.... unusual for one to have such an aggressive recession into a past fear with out some sort of stimulus to prompt it.”

Nia shrugged blandly. “There are threats all the time,” she said. “Every day I leave this apartment and go to CatCo knowing that you could be laying your life on the line without me even knowing. Is that enough stimulus for you?”

A frown creased Brainy’s face and he sat up suddenly. “So... I am to believe that the cause of your nightmares is.... _me_?”

“No, no!” Nia hurriedly sat up, too, and wrapped her hand around his forearm. “Good grief, that’s not what I mean at all. It’s not like you’re the one _instigating_ all of the dangerous situations you get put in. You’re a superhero, Brainy; I love you for that. But you’re still... in danger, _all the time_ , and it just.....”

“What can I do?” he asked seriously, turning to her. “What can I do to help you? I do not wish to see you like this, Nia.”

Nia opened her mouth, floundering for an answer. “Text me,” she settled on finally. “Text me when you leave for the field, and text me when you get back. Just so I- I know what’s going on. I promise I won’t insist on coming unless you need me, and I won’t be super overbearing asking if you’re okay. Just.... text me when you leave and when you come back, and tell me honestly if you’re all right or not. It’ll.... it’ll take the _not knowing_ out of it, at least. Is that something you can do?”

“Indeed,” Brainy answered immediately. “I will set a reminder to activate immediately before and after I am on field duty.”

Nia let out a breath and tugged him back with her to lay down. “Awesome,” she agreed. “Sleep now?”

“Of course,” Brainy agreed, pressing his lips firmly to her forehead. “Sweet dreams, Nia Nal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact- my original ending Author's Note for this chapter was written an hour and a half before the Bottle Episode, aka the episode that Nia and Brainy broke up and my life figuratively ended. I was so innocent and unassuming, trusting that the Supergirl writers would give us a beautiful, happy-making, Brainia-centric episode. How times have changed. I now trust no one.


	25. When You Wake Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's here it for Write-To-You and here aggressively irregular posts!!

_Monday_

Nia woke up to breakfast and a vase of flowers on her bedside table. She smiled at the sight, stomach growling in anticipation. It was still a little surreal to her that she and Brainy were even living together (as of yesterday, actually), and that she’d be able to simply roll over to thank her boyfriend for the treat. 

But unlike the muffins, daisies, and Nia’s appetite... Brainy wasn’t there. Frowning, Nia sat up and reached for the trey her breakfast had been on. There was a note. 

_Good morning,  
Enjoy the muffins. For the sake of your teeth and taste buds, I didn’t make them myself. I will see you this afternoon. I hope you have a productive day at work._

_Love,_

_Brainy_

Nia rolled her eyes a little, smiling at the frankly unromantic letter before folding it and putting it on her trey. She appreciated the breakfast and the flowers, she really did, but she would have preferred to wake up to a tan skinned, brunet techno-organic instead.

_Tuesday_

_Maybe yesterday was a fluke_ , Nia thought as she blindly tapped her alarm off on Tuesday morning. _Maybe Brainy somehow forgot that it was our first morning together and decided to rush off._

Now that she thought about it.... he had never actually explained where he’d been yesterday morning. 

But it didn’t matter. Today was a new day, and when Nia turned over she was going to see a warm, sleepy Coluan blinking muggily at her with a question of ‘why wake up to _that_ song?’ on his lips.

Nia flipped over.

Brainy wasn’t there. Again. 

_Wednesday:_

“Where do you go in the mornings?” Nia asked, as casually as possible, at dinner on Wednesday night. She had spent another morning waking up in bed alone, and she really needed to figure out what was going on.... and if this was how it was going to be for the rest of their time together. “I wake up and you’re not there. You’re not even _home_.”

“I require much less sleep than the average human,” Brainy replied, sitting in his chair with his usual ramrod posture. If Nia was being honest, he looked like he belonged in a royal court, not her kitchen. “I arise quite early in the morning and leave for work as soon as I have consumed something and gathered my belongings.”

“Gotcha,” Nia said, poking her fork at her food. 

“Why... do you ask?” Brainy questioned, eyebrows furrowing.

Nia bit her lip, wondering how truthful she should be. It was true that problems were only dealt with when there was proper communication, but she didn’t want to start anything. She’d gotten to get ready with him for bed every night so far, right? Who was she to complain that they didn’t wake up together? 

“No reason,” she lied with a shrug, and Brainy nodded, accepting the answer.

Which is what she’d wanted. Right?

_Thursday:_

“This is so stupid,” Nia grumbled as she glared down at the magazine she was holding. 

She and Kara were on their weekly grocery-shopping trip and were currently standing in line at the cash register. Kara was entertaining herself with trying to see which cashier had the most money in their box, but Nia had settled into the slightly more normal activity of reading the magazines put out for that very purpose.

“What’s stupid?” Kara asked, pushing her glasses back up her nose. “What’re you reading? Did Blake and Gwen break up?”

“Nooo,” Nia groaned, before pausing. “Well, okay- I actually don’t know. But that’s not what I was reading. It’s an article called ‘the top ten best things about living with your partner’ and _guess what number 1 is_?”

“What?”

“Waking up next to your significant other in the morning,” Nia said, before slapping the magazine shut with a deep sigh. “See, what they don’t take into account is those of us who happen to live with our significant other and _haven’t_ gotten to wake up with him yet.”

Kara’s mouth fell open a little. “Wait, not even once? You guys have spent, like, four mornings together already!”

“I know,” Nia said dejectedly. “He gets up so early that he’s gone for work by the time my alarm goes off.” 

The line moved up a little and Nia turned to put the magazine away. “Have you tried talking to him?” Kara asked, leaning on the handle of her shopping cart. “Explaining that you want to wake up with him some mornings?”

“No...” Nia mumbled. “I mean, I asked where he was every morning, and then he asked why I asked.... but I said there was no reason. I don’t want to make him feel bad for having a routine.”

Kara laughed a little. “Honestly reminds me of when Mon-El and I started dating,” she mused nostalgically. “The first night we spent together, I got up at like 4am and saved about twenty people, and then got him coffee and flowers.” She shook her head, reaching forward to fiddle with the twenty or so granola bars in her cart. “But then he asked me to be there when he woke up, and so I did from then on.”

She shrugged, moving up again and starting to load things from her cart onto the conveyor belt. “I mean, I know that Mon-El is _wayyy_ different than Brainy, and you guys‘ relationship is different from what ours was. But still. Maybe if you just said you wanted to wake up with him, he’d sleep in a little later?”

Nia sighed, grumbling a little as she bumped her own cart forward. “I _suppose_ ,” she agreed after a moment. “I just... I want things to go smoothly, you know? At least at first, to just have everything be.... perfect, I guess.”

“Who doesn’t?” Kara said with a shrug, smiling at the cashier, who had most likely been listening to their entire conversation. “But relationships take some struggle and give-and-take; you know that.”

“I’ll wait until the weekend,” Nia decided. “If he’s not there when I wake up on Saturday, I’ll do something about it.”

_Friday_

Nia normally allowed herself a little extra time to get ready for the day on Fridays. She was always tired by the time the end of the week rolled around, and, though she ended up getting up earlier, she liked being able to laze around in bed. 

Also... she was kind of hoping that if she got up earlier, Brainy might still be home. 

As soon as her alarm went off, Nia leapt out of bed and hurried into the kitchen. The lights were off. Brainy’s shoes were gone. 

Nia let out a sigh and sat down at the kitchen counter, propping her head up on her hand. She really had to stop getting her hopes up that things would be different when there was literally no reason for them to be different. It was almost like watching a TV show and thinking that maybe _this_ episode will be different; maybe _this_ episode your ship will be on, even though there’s been no talk about it and no reason to think that _this_ episode would be any different than _that_ episode and _that_ episode and that _other_ episode.

Nia shook her head, suddenly wanting to watch TV. She should get ready for work. Tomorrow, she would see if Brainy slept in. He worked on Saturdays, occasionally, but he had the morning off.

Everyone needed a break, right? Even techno-organics. If Nia just got _one day_ a week to wake up with her boyfriend, that would be alright with her. 

_Saturday ___

__Nia always slept late on Saturday mornings. It was rare that she had to go into CatCo on Saturdays, and so she soaked up her lazy time in bed, shutting off her alarm and letting the steadily lightening room draw her eyes open instead._ _

__This specific Saturday, Nia rolled towards the inside of the bed without opening her eyes. She crossed her fingers, took a deep breath to steel herself against oncoming disappointment, and peeked through her eyelids._ _

__The bed was empty._ _

__Nia laid back against the mattress, the corners of her mouth drawing downward. She heard a door slam and footsteps in the hallway, and a moment later Brainy poked his head into the room, fully clothed. “Good morning, Nia,” he said happily. “I took the liberty of getting us a coffee and some scones from the bakery. Would you like to eat in bed?”_ _

__Nia let out a deep sigh, gazing up at him. How could she get frustrated or take issue with someone who woke up early on a Saturday morning to do _that_ for her? _ _

__The answer was, she couldn’t._ _

__“Let’s eat at the table,” Nia said, pushing the warm covers off of her legs and standing up to head to the kitchen. “No sense in getting crumbs all over the bed.”_ _

___Sunday_ _ _

__Nia had given Brainy one more day, just to make _positive_ Saturday hadn’t been a fluke. But when she awoke to a painfully empty bed for the 7th day in a row, she gave in. _ _

__“Brainy...” Nia said slowly as she walked into the living room to find him sitting in the armchair, reading something on his iPad. She slipped onto the side of the chair, draping her arm comfortably around his shoulders. “Can I talk to you about something?”_ _

__“Of course,” Brainy agreed immediately, clicking the power button on his iPad and setting it on the coffee table in front of him. He turned to her with a bright smile, but she could tell that her question had made him a little nervous. “What is it?”_ _

__“I’d like to wake up with you,” Nia blurted, unsure of how else to frame what she needed to say._ _

__Brainy frowned, shifting his weight in the chair and blinking a few times. “I... don’t understand.”_ _

__Nia reached over and took his hand, pressing a quick kiss to his knuckles. She really didn’t want this to turn into a Nia-has-a-problem-and-Brainy-gets-defensive moment. “Kara and I went to the grocery store on Thursday, and I found an article talking about the top ten best things about living with your partner. Number 1 was waking up with them in the morning.”_ _

__Brainy tilted his head, listening. He hadn’t reacted poorly yet, so Nia felt it was safe to press on._ _

__“Like... you know,” she said, twirling her free hand in the air. “That warm, sleepy feeling when you roll over in bed and see the guy that you love lying next to you. And maybe he’s awake and has been watching you sleep and he looks at you like you’re the most magical, beautiful thing in the world. Or maybe he’s still sleeping and _you_ can watch _him_. Or maybe your movement in the bed wakes him up, and the two of you smile at each other because you realize how lucky you are to have _that person_ be the first thing you see.”_ _

__“You’ve... really thought this through,” Brainy commented, smiling a little._ _

__“I’ve had a whole week to do so,” Nia replied with a shrug, refusing to get embarrassed about her daydreams. “My point is, Brainy: I’d like that. With you. But every day I’ve woken up this week you’ve been gone. The only day you were even _home_ was yesterday.”_ _

__“I went to get us coffees!”_ _

__“I know, I know,” Nia said quickly, reaching for his other hand. “And it was so _incredibly_ sweet. But you know what I like more than coffee?”_ _

__Brainy squinted thoughtfully. “....Cronuts?”_ _

__Nia laughed. “No. Well, yes. But even more than cronuts? I like _you_.”_ _

__“You like me more than cronuts?” Brainy asked wonderingly. He glanced around the room. “Well... I like you more than- more than- rewiring the interface of a 21st Century computer!”_ _

__Nia raised her eyebrow, trying not to laugh again. “Uh... thanks, honey. But anyway, even more than coffee or cronuts or breakfast in bed, I’d like to be able to wake up and see you. And I totally understand that the number of hours you sleep at night are.... kind of outrageously small. But maybe just... one day a week? A Saturday or Sunday? Or a Monday, to start the week right? I’d like to turn off my alarm and roll over in bed and see you next to me.”_ _

__“I had no idea,” Brainy said slowly, his gaze going thoughtful. “As you know, I am not very familiar with Earth dating customs. I can easily rewire my sleeping schedule to accommodate you.”_ _

__Nia frowned in surprise. Even after a considerable amount of time, there were still things about dating a techno-organic that caught her completely off-guard. “Wait... seriously? Just like that?”_ _

__“Of course,” Brainy agreed, shrugging. “I have no issue in altering my sleep patterns. Especially if it would make you happier. Besides.” He smiled over at her, and it was his turn to pick up her hand and press a kiss to her knuckles. “I would _also_ like to try this.... waking up together in the morning.”_ _

__Nia felt immensely relieved. If they could manage to work through all of their issues as a couple this easily and maturely.... well, this was going to be the best relationship she’d probably ever had, romantic or otherwise. “Awesome,” she breathed, pecking his cheek and getting up from the arm of his chair. “I can’t wait.”_ _

___Monday_ _ _

__As Taylor Swift starting playing through the buzzing phone on Nia’s bedside table, she blinked open her eyes and tapped around on the screen for the off button. Then, though she could already feel the difference in the mattress and the way the sheets were lying, she crossed her fingers and slowly turned over._ _

__Brainy lay with his head propped up so close it was almost on her pillow, curled on his side. His hair had fallen across his face and it was fluttering slightly with each breath he released._ _

__Nia felt something in her chest loosen and melt away. She reached out and tucked the hair behind Brainy’s ear, the motion making him blink his eyes blearily open. “Good morning,” Nia whispered, smiling._ _

__Brainy smiled back at her, his eyes still cloudy with sleep. Every muscle in his face was relaxed. “Good morning, Nia Nal.”_ _

__“See?” Nia murmured as she got comfy under the covers again. She had to get ready for work.... but that could wait for the time being. “This is so much better than cronuts.”_ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Peep the mini-rant that I interjected into the actually body of the story. I had a lot of pent up emotions when I wrote this, in case you couldn't tell


	26. DreamDox and the Media

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: In which DreamDox becomes a trending hashtag.
> 
> Spoilers: This isn’t a spoiler butttt for the sake of this story just pretend that people know Brainy by Agent Dox. Because otherwise the ship name won’t work. Besides, I don’t even know what his official superhero name is, anyway. Roll with it, folks XD

This was officially the oddest situation Nia had ever been in.

Here she was, at CatCo, and she’d just been assigned to write a tabloid-esc news article. That in itself wasn’t so weird (CatCo was more tabloid than newspaper by every passing day), but the article was about the ‘exciting possible relationship between two young superheroes’.

Namely, Dreamer and Agent Dox.

Nia felt exceedingly awkward. How could she pretend to look for clues in the few captured videos of Dreamer and Agent Dox, perusing them objectively to try and figure out if they were dating? It was _her_. She would be watching _herself_.

Besides, she and Brainy weren’t even dating. They.... flirted, occasionally, and were kinda in the dancing-around-each-other, who’s-asking-who-out-first stage of their relationship. But they were _not_ together, officially or unofficially, so the real conclusion in Nia’s article would be a solid, _sorry, no relationship here_.

Except....

When you looked at the videos...

Well, if she was being honest, they _did_ kinda look like a couple.

See, there were three videos. The first was from only a few weeks after Nia had become Dreamer. It was one of the first videos that had been taken of her as a superhero, period, and was footage of her, Brainy and Kara fighting a blue-haired humanoid who called herself Deceilia. Nia had just been knocked aside by one of Deceilia’s powerful back-fists and had flown across the parking lot, landing so hard on the side of a car that she bent the metal.

In the video, Brainy was at her side in moments, abandoning the fight. There wasn’t much audio on the video besides screaming people, and even though the videographer had zoomed in on the two of them, Brainy’s lips were impossible to read. Still, Nia remembered what he’d say almost to the letter.

_“Dreamer! Are you alright?”_

_Nia had groaned, trying to push herself up from the ground. Brainy grabbed her arm and helped pull her to her feet. “What are you doing, Brainy? You can’t just leave the fight like that.”_

_“I had to make sure you were okay,” Brainy had replied, frowning. Even the blurry video feed caught sight of his hand lifting to carefully pick a piece of glass out of her hair. “Shall we return to the skirmish now?”_

It hadn’t been much, that was true. The picking-glass-out-of-hair thing had been sweet, Nia supposed, but she _also_ supposed that he would have done the same to Kara. Or J’onn, if he had hair. 

But the fact that he had left the fight, which most likely went against every logical programing in his stupid, genius brain? That’s what really got Nia tingling.

She shook her head, changing videos. There wasn’t any definite proof in that, and no unbiased reporter who hadn’t been standing in Nia’s shoes and hearing what she’d heard would take that video as confirmation of a relationship. 

The next video was a confrontation between her and an alien who had remarkably similar powers. The camera was incredibly shaky, most likely because the world was almost-literally falling apart around whoever was holding it, but Nia could see herself trapped in a dream-energy battle with a long, thin man. Two streams of dream energy were meeting at the middle, and both Nia and the malefactor had looks of serious concentration on their faces as they struggled to get the upper hand.

And then Brainy came up behind Nia and put his hand at her back. His image inducer was off and his inhibitors glowed brightly, giving Nia’s energy just that much of a nudge that she was able to send her opponent flying backward. 

This was the third time Nia had seen the video, and the second time that afternoon, so she had the sound off. But it was about that moment that the guy holding the camera starting freaking out and jumping up and down with excitement. 

When he remembered he was recording, he calmed down and refocused the video, just in time to see Nia hovering over Brainy, who was sitting on the ground. It wasn’t clear to anyone watching the video exactly what had happened, but Nia remembered feeling Brainy’s grip slip away from her back and hearing the cringe-inducing thump as he sat heavily down on the pavement, so exhausted that his legs had given out.

In the video, Nia put her hands on Brainy’s shoulders, rubbing them lightly. CatCo Nia expanded the video, trying to get an idea of how much you could really see. 

Yep. There it was. Brainy’s hand was just barely visible on top of hers, holding it in place. 

Nia frowned and exited the video. It still wasn’t proof of a relationship but she had to admit, these pieces of footage were pretty incriminating. 

Nia moved on to the next video, the last out of three that she had of her and Brainy while in the field. _This_ was the video that had caused all of the queries about the possible relationship between Dreamer and Agent Dox, and it was pretty hard to ignore.

In truth, the video wasn’t even one of them fighting. It was set _after_ a fight, when one of their vlogger-fans had raced up to them and shoved a camera in their faces. “Hi!!! I’m Super Vids from youtube and my fans have been commenting like _crazy_ to try and get me to interview you two. Can I just ask, like, two really quick questions?”

Video-Brainy looked uncertain, but Nia had been ecstatic. “Sure!” she’d accepted with a large grin and a voice so high-pitched with excitement that non-video-Nia cringed hearing it. “Go ahead.”

“Awesome!” the vlogger chirped. “All right. First question: Other than Supergirl because she’s, y’know, Supergirl... who do you think is the most powerful Superfriend?”

“Dreamer,” Brainy replied, at the exact moment Nia answered with, “Agent Dox.”

They looked at each other and non-video-Nia watched her eyes grow large with emotion as she gazed at Brainy’s face in the footage. She remembered the feeling she had gotten when Brainy had said those words in front of the camera. He wasn’t the type to make up that kind of thing just to be nice. He really believed what he was saying. 

“Awwwwww....” the vlogger crooned. “Okay, adorable. Guys, if you haven’t hit that like button already you should be right about now. Anyway, second-slash-last question and then I _prooooomise_ I will let you both go. Second and last question is... what’s the hardest thing about being a superhero?”

In the video, Nia and Brainy both fell silent, thoughtful. Nia spoke up first. “Knowing you can’t save everyone,” she said quietly. “It’s amazing to have these abilities and be able to save people’s lives, but there’s always those stray few that don’t make it. And knowing -or, _thinking_ , anyway- that it’s your fault... that you didn’t do enough... it’s a heavy burden to carry.”

Video-Brainy was watching her, his eyebrows furrowed seriously. If the vlog camera had just been angled a _little_ differently, the footage wouldn’t have caught his next move. 

But the camera _wasn’t_ angled differently, and it was blatantly obvious when Brainy took Nia’s hand. 

Present-time-Nia let out a groan and stopped the video. She had already heard Brainy’s response (both IRL and when she’d watched the vlog a few times afterwards), and didn’t need to hear him repeat his fears of making the wrong choice and, like Nia had said, being responsible for someone’s death or pain. 

Darn Brainy. Darn him and his sweet comfortingness. Nia had been brimming over with butterflies when he’d taken her hand in that moment, but now it was leaving her in a very tricky situation. 

How could she say that they _weren’t_ dating when he went and did something like that? 

Groaning again, but more petulantly, Nia exited Youtube and opened up a google doc. She had an article to write, and no matter how weird or awkward it would be, she knew how she had to write it.

Three days later, Nia was hesitant to walk into the DEO. But Alex had called her in to help out with Dreamer stuff, and she couldn’t refuse just because her article that _happened_ to be about her and Brainy _happened_ to have been published in CatCo that morning, and because Brainy _happened_ to read everything that she wrote. Nia had a feeling Alex wouldn’t take that as an excuse.

Ughhhhhhh this morning was going to be so awkward. 

True to form, Brainy wasted absolutely no time in approaching her when she arrived at the DEO. “I... saw your article,” he said, squinting in a way that made his face nearly unreadable. “I.... I wish to confirm with you that we aren’t.... dating.”

At the very least, Nia had to give him props that he hadn’t beat around the bush at all. Like, at _all_. Like.... he hadn’t even said hello. “I know,” she replied, shaking her head. “Look, I was tasked with writing this stupid article about whether or not Agent Dox and Dreamer are together. And I tried to be objective because no one knows I’m Dreamer, you know?”

“I understand that...” Brainy murmured slowly. “But that does not explain why you settled on the confusion that a, and I quote, ‘relationship between the two superheroes is pretty likely, though there’s no way to be sure without asking Dreamer and Agent Dox themselves.’ “

“Yes, I know,” Nia sighed. “Again, I had to be as objective as possible, and when you look at the stuff of the two of us the public has seen....” She hesitated, but only for a second, because if he had been blunt then she could be, too. “Seriously, Brainy, we look like we’re a couple. You literally held my hand in that interview we got on the street.”

Brainy looked affronted. “It was purely to comfort you and provide reassurance!”

“I know!” Nia let out a groan and shook her head. “And I appreciated it so much. But it really _did_ make us look like we’re a couple.” She shrugged her shoulders. “So what if the public thinks our superhero alter-egos are together? If anyone outright asks, we’ll just break the news to them that we aren’t actually dating then.”

“Oh.” Brainy’s face fell a little. “So you don’t wish... that is to say, your article didn’t imply... you didn’t actually want me to.... you don’t wish to date me?”

Nia felt a surge of butterflies swarm in her stomach and she turned to look at Brainy more fully in the face. “Wait.... you’re saying that you want to date me?”

“I didn’t say that,” he muttered, cheeks darkening. “I merely confirmed that the article you wrote about our superhero alter-egos being in a relationship was _not_ , in fact, what Alex calls a.... hint.”

Nia was unable to resist a small snort of laughter. “No,” she told Brainy. “I wasn’t hinting that I want to date you through my article.”

“Oh,” Brainy repeated, his face falling a little more.

Nia looked at him curiously. “But that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to date you,” she said cautiously, trying to gauge his reaction by going as slowly as she feasibly could without seeming weird. “I mean.... I wouldn’t mind. Dating you.”

“Then let us date!” Brainy declared, a little too loudly. A couple of agents looked over, lips quirking, and Nia felt her cheeks color as she saw a newspaper from CatCo open on someone’s desk. 

But then the meaning of Brainy’s words hit her and a grin broke over Nia’s face. “Seriously?” she asked. “You’re asking me out? Like, for real?”

“Yes,” Brainy said, nodding. “Let us go on a date, Dreamer.” He looked between the two of them, both in their superhero costumes and waiting to go out into the field. “Just... maybe not right now.”

“Tomorrow,” Nia said, nodding her agreement. “Sounds great.”

Alex came over around them, halfway through pushing her gun into its hip-holster. “You guys are trending,” she said with a smirk.

“What?” Nia asked, frowning a little. “What do you mean?”

Alex tugged her phone out of her pocket and tapped the screen for a second before flipping it to show Nia. There were a few things on Alex’s twitter feed that Nia would be interested in looking into further (including a couple of murder-themed memes and an advertisement for a very cute combat boot), but one thing specifically caught her attention.

#DreamDox

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Imagine being able to ship them IRL tho...


	27. Harassed Pt. 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Nia starts getting harassed at CatCo for being an alien. Brainy only realizes something’s wrong when she tries to quit her job.
> 
> Spoilers: You, um. You need to know Nia is an alien. SORRY IF I SPOILED THAT XD XD XD Okay okay seriously tho- I’ll just fill you in: the anti-alien community calls aliens roaches. Doesn’t spoil anything, really. Just an FYI.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ayy I think this is my first Pt. 1 chapter!

The harassment started small. Nia’s coffee spilled over some important papers. Her work computer unplugged overnight so it took a considerable amount of time to boot up in the morning. Being purposefully excluded from group emails so she wasn’t in the know about meetings and deadlines.

Kara said to just ignore it. Kara said it would go away. Granted, Kara wasn’t getting harassed, but Nia just assumed that she knew what she was talking about.

Then things got worse. There was one morning when Nia walked out of the elevator and one of her coworkers plowed into her with a rolling dolly. Coffee had spilled all down her shirt and burned a large swath of area on her chest. A week after that, a different coworker had “accidentally” shut her fingers in a file cabinet, so hard that she had blood blisters all along her the space between her middle and top knuckles. Another day, she left her lunch at her desk and went to the bathroom during her break, only to come back to find the food gone and a note that read _‘Roaches don’t need to eat’_.

Nia stopped telling Kara what was going on. She stopped talking to anyone about it. She hadn’t been this badly terrorized since high school, since she had made the transition to physically become a woman. 

The worst part, honestly, was that Nia knew who was responsible for all of it. Her harassers weren’t being sneaky. They weren’t trying to remain anonymous like the cyber-bullies she had dealt with in high school. It was as if they were daring Nia to do something about it; to tattle on them.

Well, she wouldn’t. She had gone through this before. And maybe she stopped bringing coffee to work. And maybe she started keeping her purse in her lap and her earbuds out while she wrote because she was worried someone was going to steal her wallet. And maybe she made sure Kara was around every time she took a bathroom break so she would see if someone was messing with her things. 

So Nia coped. 

But it _kept. Happening_.

And then one morning, her computer was gone.

“That’s it,” Nia said, standing up with a jolt. Her voice came out even louder than she’d intended, all almost all the motion on her floor froze. “Who took my computer? I know you guys don’t want an alien working with you but enough is enough. I need to do my job.”

There was a long silence and a few undisguised glances were exchanged around the workroom. 

“No one’s got your computer,” one of her coworkers, the one who’d hit her with the rolling dolly, said, and shook his head at her. Then, loud enough for her to hear, he muttered. “Roach.”

And just like that, Nia was done. She picked up her purse, grabbed the picture frame and her favorite few office supplies from her desk, and walked out the door. 

She had a date with Brainy that night. Even spending time with him had lost a lot of its joy over the past few months. Brainy loved her hear about CatCo; about her day, and she would have to constantly put on a smile and peppily talk about all the great reporting she was doing and the cool articles to had to investigate. She was worried that if she even let slip just a _tiny bit_ of job-related unhappiness, even something that had nothing to do with the harassment, everything else would come out in a rush and that would be it. 

But she couldn’t lie to him tonight. So when the two of them sat down to pizza and wine, she brought up CatCo almost immediately. “I quit.”

Brainy choked, and for a moment Nia thought she might get out of this conversation on the sole factor that he’d need to be taken to the hospital with the amount that he started coughing.

But he calmed down eventually, took a long sip of wine, and managed a strained, “ _What_?”

“I quit,” Nia replied, but only once she was positive he didn’t have any food or drink in his mouth. “I quit CatCo today. Well. Not officially. I haven’t actually told Andrea yet. But I’m going to tomorrow.”

“Wha- _Why_?” Brainy asked, staring at her in bewilderment. “Nia- you love CatCo! You love to research, and write! I haven’t heard you say a single bad thing about your job in months. This is the happiest you’ve ever been at CatCo.”

The dam broke.

“ _No it’s not, okay_?!” Nia yelled, and she didn’t care that people were staring, and she didn’t care that she was probably going to start crying, and she didn’t care that the whole restaurant was about to hear the truth instead of just her boyfriend. “I’m _not_ happy, I’ve never been _less_ happy, and the only reason you _think_ I’m happy is because I’ve been lying to your face- _everyone’s faces_ \- for months! Well, you know what? I can’t do it anymore! I’m _not_! _Okay_!”

Brainy stared at her with wide eyes and Nia stopped speaking, feeling her blood pumping with every beat of her heart and the burn of embarrassment and anger singing her cheeks. 

“I had no idea,” Brainy murmured finally. “If I had known-”

“Well, you didn’t,” Nia said, her voice about three times more subdued. Her throat was raw and she realized she might have started screaming sometime during her confession. “Someone stole my computer today. Yesterday, someone dropped a paperweight on my foot. The day before that someone spilled coffee all over my bare legs. Last week all of my pens were taken. People took my lunch because roaches don’t need to eat.”

Brainy suddenly looked as shattered as Nia felt. “They’re- they are doing this because you’re an alien?” he asked, horrified. “They are doing this at you _work place_? Nia, when did this begin?”

“A few months ago,” Nia said softly. “It wasn’t a lot at first but it’s gotten worse.”

“And you said.... nothing?” Brainy replied, his gaze skating over her face. “To me? To Kara? Even to _Andrea_ , to let her know what was going on at _her company_?”

“No,” Nia whispered. “I told Kara, at first, but she said it’d go away if I just ignored it. I didn’t- I didn’t want to worry you, Brainy, because I know you hate discrimination more than almost anyone and I was- I _am_ \- worried about what you’d do.”

“What I’ll do,” Brainy said gently, getting up out of his chair and walking around the side of the table. For the briefest of moments, Nia thought he was going to walk all the way out of the restaurant; out on _her_. But instead he moved to her side and put his arms around her. “What I’ll do is hug you because it’s clear to me that no one has shown you the decency of common kindness in quite awhile.”

Nia felt her chest tighten with a painful pressure. She hadn’t cried over this yet, not once, in three months. In fact, she hadn’t even cried at all, period, in three months. The weight of it all was pushing itself up her throat, trying to break the surface.

She let out one sob, and then another. Brainy somehow finagled his way onto her chair, so they were sitting side by side, then she was in his lap and was burying her face in his shoulder. The skin of his neck became slick with tears and the hem of his shirt dampened, but Brainy just held her. “You are not a roach,” he said, almost too softly for Nia to hear over the sound of her own rattling breath. “You are a strong, beautiful, distinctly not bug-like, Nalturian-American. Do you understand me?”

Nia nodded, lifting her face from his shoulder to look him, rather stuffily, in the eyes.

Someone above them cleared their throat. “Ummm, I’m sorry..... is the pizza not... good?” their server asked, looking a little alarmed. 

Nia snorted with laughter, so hard that snot actually came out of her nose. She grabbed the napkin from the table and hurriedly wiped her face, flushing with embarrassment and tears and laughter.

“The pizza is sublime,” Brainy replied sedately. 

“Sorry,” Nia apologized, knowing that there had been an unspoken question in the waiter’s actual question. “It’s been a... rough few months at work. Uh.... sorry if we disturbed anything here. Can we get a to-go box?”

The waiter glanced at their table, on which lay entire pizza, sans one slice. “Um, sure,” he said, frowning a little. “I’ll bring that and your bill.”

Nia started laughing again and was unable to stop, still half-crying and hiccuping along with that. “I’m a mess,” she said, trying to untangle herself from Brainy without falling over or anything like that. “We’re in the middle of a restaurant and I just unofficially quit my job and had a melt down and I’m a _mess_.”

Brainy looked at her and let out a long breath. “You are still beautiful when you cry, though,” he said with a shrug. “So at least you’re not an unsightly mess.”

Nia sat down in the chair that Brainy had initially occupied and let out a deep, long breath, trying to steady her breathing. She felt almost lightheaded with exhaustion and the fit of laughter that had finally calmed down, and took a sip from her wine glass.

“Nia,” Brainy said cautiously. “If you would like.... I will go in to CatCo with you tomorrow morning. We can speak with Andrea about the way your coworkers are treating you. We can deal with the issue _together_.”

He reached across the table and covered her hand with his, tentatively, like he hadn’t just been holding her entire body in his arms. “I... won’t make a scene,” he promised. “I will just support you. _However_ you need me to. But I... I don’t want you to give up on CatCo just yet. I will not let the bullies win. Alright?”

Nia nodded, a more mellow wave of tears beading in her eyes. She made no move to wipe them away, content to cover Brainy’s hand so it was sandwiched with hers. “Alright,” she agreed softly. “CatCo. Tomorrow.”

“But for tonight,” Brainy went on. “I believe we have some uneaten pizza and an episode of Phineas and Ferb on Disney+ with our name on it.”

Nia smiled gratefully at him. “That sounds perfect.”

And for the first time in three months, she thought that just maybe, she might be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your daily reminder that different isn't bad and you don't have to be afraid of it! Let's cut harassment and hate crimes off at their roots by actually changing the way we think about people. People are _people_ , not their sexuality, not their race, not their religion. Love you all <3

**Author's Note:**

> Yayyy, more Brainy and Nia! I'm excited to finally start posting this drabble series. As I said in the summery, it's going to take me awhile to transfer all of the chapters over, so just bare with me and enjoy some frequent updates for a little while :)


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